Upgrades
by Major Mario
Summary: Juri Han generously offers to test a few new programs Seth has created for use in her cybernetic eye. The programs all have strange functions, mostly in the form of helpful or destructive powers. Trouble ensues. On hiatus.
1. Prologue

When she heard about it from Crimson Viper, the Korean's initial reaction was to scoff. In a secluded research facility located in the middle of nowhere, rumors and conjecture were easily passed about. Every scientist had something to talk or boast about, and every guard had something to grumble about. Eventually something would be picked up and passed around, but the odds of it being interesting were very low for Juri, who hardly ever mingled in exasperating scientific affairs. However, the rumor that Seth was planning a new line of projects that involved her was not something to be ignored.

It was like Seth to propose new and interesting project ideas. They were rare, however, given that the synthetic man barely had enough time to devote to himself. Usually he would patrol the facility with Juri nipping at his heels as he checked on ongoing projects and their overseers, buckle down and tend to files and reports, monitor Shadaloo traffic for helpful information, or pound away at an assignment that was very important for S.I.N. When he finally managed to secure time for himself, it was only because S.I.N. was doing very well.

Previous ideas from Seth were focused primarily on and within the facility. Most were designed to save time and energy for researchers while others were designed to further optimize the facility for increased production and output. Some projects were even simple devices which purpose was to maintain the building. Juri cracked a smirk at the thought of the world's most brilliant scientists and researchers with little to no cleaning skills having designed small personal robots to do the tasks for them. She batted one of the disc-like cleaning robots away with her foot as she traversed down the corridors of the facility en route to Seth's office.

Whenever Seth got to planning projects that directly affected human beings, Juri and the others in the facility had every right to be concerned. What would it be this time? A seemingly beneficial virus that would accidentally kill off red blood cells? A poor attempt at pushing for proper hygiene? Another company healthcare reform? Juri remembered the last time the man tried to meddle in human affairs. An apathetic approach to workplace relations had cost him two percent of the workforce, which wouldn't have been such a bother had it not been for Juri, who had to hunt down that two percent.

But it wasn't just every human being in the S.I.N. research facility that was going to be affected by Seth's project. No, it was just Juri Han. The woman fondly recalled Seth's pride and joy, the Feng Shui Engine, being transplanted into her body to replace the loss of her left eye, but other than that, the synthetic man had made no further attempts to make something useful for her. He did, however, oblige her requests and always made a conscientious effort to placate her if need be, but that was the extent of his generosity. Perhaps Seth was preparing a gift of some sort to correct that.

Juri was not gullible enough to think Seth had a gift for her after her recent string of misbehavior. She was simply curious. If Seth had something in store for her, the logical approach would be to confront him about it, lest she was caught off guard by something she could have prevented. By no means would the synthetic man try to rid himself of his confidante. She was far too valuable an agent to be disposed of. Her skills were second to none and the Feng Shui Engine was a deadly weapon when wielded by her.

It was just her personality that was grating, but even Seth didn't have the nerve to tell her that directly.

After making her way through the hallways of the upper levels of the facility, Juri opened the doors to Seth's office and waltzed inside. When she first came to S.I.N., the sight of the elegantly designed room built around a man in power filled her with awe. Mahogany bookcases filled with literature and knowledge lined the walls along with brilliantly decorated curtains which hung over the tops of large floor-to-ceiling windows. A dark red carpet led the way to a desk fit for a king, and sitting behind the desk with a calm and apathetic air about him was Seth himself.

For a moment, the two stared at each other. They could not have been any different. One was a tall 'man' with grey skin, alien blue eyes, a bald head and a suppressed megalomaniacal desire to take over the world while the other was a odd-looking Korean woman with vibrant and violent violet eyes, a coy and malicious demeanor, and an eccentric ensemble that would make a runway model blush. The only thing they had in common was the question on their minds at that moment, which was a curt 'just what are you planning'.

Seth, for once in his short life, beat Juri to the punch and voiced his thoughts.

"Juri? What are you doing here?" The synthetic man turned around in his chair to look at an overhead clock for a quick second before turning back to Juri. "Usually you don't come to bother me until four o'clock. I don't have any assignments for you, if that's what you're looking for."

"I've heard that you've got something in store for me," Juri replied quickly with a thumb cocked at herself. "Spill it."

"Really?" Seth asked with an incredulous look. "Who said that?"

"Doesn't matter. You know how people talk."

Juri approached Seth and placed her hands on his desk. Her eyes were narrowed in suspicion, but her expression was eerily calm, even all-knowing. Seth knew that look meant nothing but ill for him. Try as he might, his confidante knew too much about him to be thrown off by his speech or feigned ignorance. No one ever seemed to fall for his feigned ignorance given that he was the most knowledgeable of all the scientists and researchers in the facility, but still he tried. Today, however, he realized it was a lost cause.

"I may have a project or two in mind that involves you in some way," Seth sighed begrudgingly.

"What are you gonna do? Inject me with spider DNA for the lols?" When Seth didn't immediately respond, Juri scoffed and jumped up to sit on Seth's desk. She purposefully covered up a few folders and papers important to Seth with her body. "I'm not your guinea pig, so go find someone else."

"My dear, I wasn't planning on injecting you with some unstable virus or anything like that. You're far too valuable to me to be treated like a test subject," Seth said as he reached forward to cup Juri's chin. "No, I had something better in mind."

The way the man said 'dear' so endearingly left a bad feeling in the pit of Juri's stomach. Simple affection was beneath the man, as all he saw of the human race was a bunch of labrats and expendable values to further his research and goals. He would show compassion and sympathy from time to time, but only to get the upper hand or to obtain something that could not be gained through brute force alone. Juri could respect her boss's method of operation for only so long until his robotic and genuinely apathetic approaches began to sicken her.

With a disgusted grunt, she ripped her chin away from Seth's grasp.

"Oh good, I'm appreciated around here. What's on your mind then? Better yet, am I going to enjoy it?"

"Do you remember me telling you about the Tanden Engine within my body, Juri?"

"Yeah, its purpose is to copy and translate data gained from martial artists in the field, thus allowing you to properly gather data necessary for the BLECE project," Juri droned out. "Some of its mechanisms were taken and optimized to work within a much smaller device, which was the start of the Feng Shui Engine. Which, I'm sure you remember, was given to me."

"And which belongs to me," Seth added with a smile. "With some of the data that I've gathered, I plan on creating engines similar to the Feng Shui Engine to-"

"Are you an idiot?!" Juri interjected.

"Calm down, Juri. The engines' powers will be small; nowhere near your eye's capabilities. I'm no fool. Having too much power underneath this facility's roof would beg for trouble," Seth said. "There are other agents under my employ than just you, but they are not up to par with your abilities and skills."

Juri smiled lightly at the compliment.

"What's this have to do with more engines?"

"The agents that we have are sophisticated in certain areas, unlike you who is what a common man would say, 'A jack of all trades'. Having engines utilized by these agents would increase their potential and performance in the field. Obviously I don't trust any of them to allow them access to an engine's full potential, but perhaps a small taste would ensure their trust," Seth mused. "I propose applying one program and one program only to an engine to increase the agent's effectiveness."

"Program?" Juri repeated with a tilt of her head. "You mean like a computer program?"

"But of course. The program, when initialized, will bestow upon the user one special power attuned to their set of skills."

It seemed like a bad idea to Juri for Seth to hand out engines like her own. Granted, the man was playing it safe by stripping the devices of their power to allow one perk only, but that perk was power, and power- no matter how small or large it was- could be used to cause much havoc. Perhaps Seth had a failsafe or restrictor in mind, as he wouldn't be the type to just hand something out and turn his back. He watched over his investments like a hawk, even Juri, much to her chagrin.

"Huh… Ok, so what does this have to do with me now?" Juri grunted.

"Since you have the Feng Shui Engine and you enjoy variety in your life, I figured you would be delighted to test out these programs."

"And this doesn't make a guinea pig… how?"

"You won't be a test subject, Juri. You'll simply be a… oh how do I put this in terms that you'll understand…" Juri put on a playful yet insulted pout as Seth tapped his chin in thought. "You will be a playtester. Think of the programs as being in closed beta status with you being the sole participator. You will test out the programs to your liking, whether through practice, recreational use, or in the field, and then you will deliver onto me a report of the program."

"Have the programs been tested before?" Juri asked. "I don't wanna have something glitch out on me."

"They have been tested regularly in virtual interfaces and have had their fair share of diagnostic run-throughs. There are no glitches to be found as of yet, at least with the first two programs, which were the first to be developed."

Juri turned away in thought. In a way, the testing of these strange engine programs would be familiar to her given that she was Seth's Feng Shui Engine tester from the very beginning. The scientists who worked on the eye were very patient and thorough in their work, and whenever a glitch appeared in the eye's system, they would quickly correct it and send the agent back on her way. The same thing would happen here with the programs should something go wrong. While it did seem safe enough to go ahead with, Juri had one more thing on her mind.

"…What's in it for me?" she pressed.

The synthetic man chuckled as if he had expected such a response.

"Depends. What is it that you desire?"

"I'm curious here," Juri said with a finger to her lip. "When this testing is over, I want three of the programs for myself."

"You're already a force to be reckoned with," Seth replied with a frown. "One program from the selection would be a reasonable choice."

"I'm the one testing the programs. I'm the one giving up my precious time for S.I.N.," Juri growled as she gestured to herself. "You're the one sitting on your ass."

"One program only."

"Three."

"Juri, don't be greedy and unreasonable," Seth scolded.

"You're one to talk, chrome-dome," Juri spat back as she hopped off Seth's desk. "You're the one hiding information from everyone, even me. Three programs should be just the right payment for my work."

"I will not allow you to take three programs, and that is final," Seth barked as he placed his hands on his desk.

The two stared each other down for a moment before Juri sighed and hung her head.

"Alright, alright… I understand." Suddenly, she looked back up at Seth with a mischievous grin. "Two programs then."

Seth glared at his confidante. He should have known that she would not take no for an answer, but he had always held onto an immature idea that she would change for the better; for his and S.I.N.'s sake. An organization was only as strong as the workers and personnel who comprised it, and while Juri was wickedly strong, she worked at her own languid pace punctuated with excitement every now and then. Such inconsistencies could not stand, but at the same time, they were what got problems resolved time and time again.

With his right eye twitching in disgust, Seth yielded.

"F-fine. Two programs it is."

"I get to pick them!" Juri shouted, as if the chrome man needed to be reminded that.

"You get to pick them," Seth growled. "You may leave now."

"Ey, nice doin' business with ya," Juri cackled in a poorly performed Boston accent. "You won't regret a thing."

"Leave. Now. And if you're wondering when you'll start testing, why, that will just be tomorrow in coming."

Juri smirked and turned on her heel to leave Seth's bland, pointless office. While she was genuinely interested to see where her boss's programs would take the organization, she was more concerned with where it would take her. She was being offered power, and since she would have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to not capitalize on it, it would serve her well to be used in further escapades and schemes. Seth was essentially handing his confidante the nails to his coffin, and Juri would be so cruel to not oblige him by pounding them down into his body again and again.

But that would have to wait. Power was useless if the wielder had no clue what it was supposed to do. Juri rubbed her hands with glee as she thought of the resources that would be thrown into her deck of cards. They would be hers to do whatever she wished, provided there was no opposition. Besides Seth, the other agents of S.I.N. would have to be confronted and removed either before or after Seth's demise. Best case scenario was that the few agents yielded to her power and acknowledged her as the true heir to S.I.N.'s throne.

However, Crimson Viper, no matter what direction the others went towards, would forever prove to be a pain in Juri's side. She played by her own rules and followed her own goals, even if they coincided with S.I.N.'s. A freelance agent that happened to be picked up by the organization just because she had the know-how to make a flashy suit full of gadgets and knickknacks? Juri would rather place her trust in an insect than even think of sparing a thought of doubt for that woman. The facility wasn't big enough for the two of them to waltz about comfortably.

Putting the troublesome agent in the ground or in her place, sadly, would have to wait until the programs were tested and eventually put to use.

Yes… All good things come to those who wait.


	2. Psychokinesis

Seth was not lying when he said that Juri would test one of his programs the following day. In preparation for the program's installation, he pulled only the most trusted- and that was a term taken very, very lightly by him- and capable scientists he knew of to be on standby in a specially designed room of his creation. The room's sole purpose was for the creation and maintenance of the Feng Shui Engine, and the scientists who worked in that department were the ones waiting for their fellow worker to show up for the morning. The problem with the preparations was that said worker, or rather agent, had the most pressing matter in the facility at the very back of her mind.

For Juri Han, the world stopped for her. She was not going to degrade herself by dropping everything to focus on someone else's problem, even if it affected her in some way. It wasn't that she was a procrastinator, far from it. She prioritized her activities according to her needs. She wanted a shower after she got up, and after that, she wanted something to eat. When she was finished with her morning needs, she spent a considerable amount of time tending to her appearance until Seth exhausted his patience for the day and sent for someone to collect her.

The woman sauntered down the halls of the facility and greeted her boss with an innocent smile when she met him. She seemed perfectly oblivious to the disgruntled looks around her and was playfully snide when Seth remarked about her tardiness. If he wanted her right away, he should have said so the last time they met. How any work got done if information did not get carried about was a mystery to the Korean, but things were still operating soundly in the facility. Before things escalated between employer and confidante, the hissing of steam and whirrs of machinery echoed throughout the room.

The room's centerpiece was a large, spherical chamber connected to a stocky control center. Inside the spherical chamber, which one would say looked like a larger-than-life copy of Juri's iconic cybernetic eye, there was enough space for one person to stand comfortably. Green pads lined the sides of the space while wires and a small apparatus hung from above. This was the machine that performed its repairs and maintenance of the Feng Shui Engine, and it was as familiar to Juri as a doctor was with a sick child.

"Whataya say we get this started?" Juri asked rhetorically before she stepped into the chamber.

With a grunt of sardonic amusement, Seth turned to his scientists and bade them to proceed. After a few precise swipes of the wrists and expert taps of keys, the FSE chamber dropped down and closed its champion within its curved interior. The machinery continued to hiss and purr about the scientists as the apparatus for maintenance dropped down in front of Juri's eyes. She rolled her shoulders and allowed the contraption to latch onto her temples so it could begin its work.

Whenever his confidante was within the confines of the FSE chamber, Seth had half a mind to reduce her powers and potential to a manageable degree. He contemplated installing a program to dull her personality or to control her, but he never followed through on his ideas. Juri Han, despite her sadistic personality and malicious tendencies, was a killer. She enjoyed fighting and was not afraid to jump into a battle, and for that, she was too precious to be molded into something else. Seth grinned momentarily at the feeling of power in his current situation before shaking his head and directing his scientists to begin installing the first program of his choosing.

After a fit of giggling from the Korean in her chamber, no doubt brought on by the feeling of her eye being modified or the concept of being granted more power, the FSE chamber hissed again and opened. Juri sauntered out and stretched, all the while shooting Seth a satisfied and proud look.

"So, Juri… How do you feel?" Seth asked nonchalantly.

"I'm feeling pretty damn good," Juri replied as she cracked her knuckles. "What do the nerds say I have to do to activate this new toy?"

"Simply draw power from the Feng Shui Engine and you should see a new visual prompt in your HUD."

"That simple, huh? Alright then."

Juri took a deep breath and gently exhaled before focusing on her inner power. She concentrated on the purple energy fluttering about in her veins and reached out to touch it. The tingling sensation of her ki quickly sparking to life and darting throughout her body left her feeling warm and invigorated. She clenched her fists and diverted her ki to her eye, where it would soon activate and open up a limitless pool of power. Before she could fully activate it, Seth's cold, chrome hand landed on her shoulder.

"Perhaps you should take this elsewhere."

A cold shoulder was the reply to his comment. While she did not voice her opinion vocally, she begrudgingly agreed with the reasoning behind Seth's concern. The room she was in was for maintaining the Feng Shui Engine, not for testing it out. Given the woman's destructive tendencies, the room would be thoroughly damaged before she finished, and she needed this room to be working efficiently. It was one of the few times that she was considerate of others, but as always, it was only because it would affect her negatively if she went the apathetic route.

"The training room in the lower levels has been prepared for you to test in," Seth said as he looked down at his confidante. "Go there, experiment with the program, and when you've had your… fun, come find me. I'll have an assignment for you to complete." Juri, while still irritated towards Seth, nodded and turned to leave. Seth once again stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "While it's good that you're enthusiastic about this, a little education goes a long way."

As Juri turned around to defend her intelligence, she found a clipboard thrust into her hands. She looked down at the papers held down on its surface and rolled her eyes. Right, the name of the program and a description of what it was. She already knew what she was getting into, so the refresher wasn't really necessary. Still, the information contained within the text could shine more light on what the program was capable of, and if it didn't, Juri would find out herself.

She waltzed out without even a nod of gratitude in Seth's direction, not that he cared for or expected one. All she was concerned about was getting to the training room and the information in her hands.

PK-B01, as the program recently installed in Juri's eye was called, was a successful attempt at manipulating psychic energies via ki manipulation. It was basically psychokinesis for martial artists, but only if they had particularly large ki reserves. How lucky for Juri that she had a limitless supply! With the program, she would be able to manipulate and move entities with her mind. Already she could imagine bolstering her kicks by applying psychic force to them or attacking talentless hacks with more potent projectiles.

That was the biggest thing on her mind, but she knew better than to make that her primary goal. After all, she hadn't even initialized the program for the power just yet! Its willingness to bend to her whims combined with her potential and determination would determine whether or not she reached the pinnacle of the psychic power. With that in mind, she quickened her pace and reached the training room of the facility in no time.

The white-tiled walls of the room gave it a sterile, stable feeling while the blue pads and training equipment provided a sense of safety and professionalism. Needless to say, Juri hated the room for being bland and uninteresting, even if it got the job done from time to time. With her purple and black belt trailing behind her, she moved into the center of the room after disposing of the clipboard and examined a trio of blue-padded pedestals. Upon each pedestal was an item of varying weight: a tennis ball, medicine ball, and a small square safe.

Just before the woman could grunt in displeasure at the short supply of testing material, the doors to the room opened to allow a redheaded woman in a black suit inside.

"Oh good, you haven't started yet," Crimson Viper said sarcastically as she shot Juri a sardonic look.

"The hell? What are you doing here?" Juri spat back.

"I work here."

"You know what I mean…"

"Oh, you mean me being in this room? Well, Seth doesn't really believe that you'll write reports and document your activity with these programs of his, so he put me in charge of that." With a small smirk, the agent produced a clipboard of her own. "So, here I am watching you test out these programs while I record everything important."

Juri smiled and placed her hands on her hips.

"Do I detect a hint of jealousy?"

"Jealous of you putting your life on the line for something that could just be a terribly stupid idea? I don't think so," Viper chuckled. "All for science, right?"

The Korean chose to not immediately dignify that with a response. Although she looked calm and collected on the outside, she was seething on the inside. Apparently, Seth's little project wasn't much of a secret if the local red-haired harlot had managed to get in on the action. A myriad of ideas swam about in Juri's mind, all of which were related to how Viper could have manipulated her way into Seth's project. But nevermind the fact that she was here now. Just what was the woman hoping to gain by being included?

As much as it pained Juri to believe so, Viper was very manipulative. How could she not be? With a face that held over thirty years of 'wisdom' and a rack that jutted out from her chest like an ill-packed suitcase, the woman was practically untouchable, especially when she asserted her dominance. Juri could never follow, and it wasn't because she couldn't. She had standards, unlike some people she knew. A spy could use those traits to get very far, and get the most important information, provided someone fell for the façade.

"Hmm… As long as science is fun and rewarding, then yeah. For science!" Juri turned back to the pedestals and rubbed her hands in glee. _'And my amusement!' _she added in thought.

With Viper near the doors with clipboard in hand, Juri widened her stance and allowed her power to permeate her body once again. She focused on her eye and shook in delight as it activated. The tell-tale shriek of initialization echoed throughout the room. No matter how many times Juri heard it, it always brightened up her day. She could see through the violet eye as her vision turned from a normal-looking world to a room bathed in dull orange, complete with all bells and whistles in the corners of her vision.

The bells and whistles, as Juri called them, were part of her heads-up display, or HUD. She hardly ever paid attention to them since they only notified her of simple things like vitality and where she was located. Both of those things could be checked by being perceptive without the use of high-grade technology. Some things, like data streams and crucial notifications, were impossible to remove. One thing that was actually useful was an energy analysis program that allowed Juri to tell if a person was powerful, either in terms of stamina or ki energy.

However, that could be easily found out just by jumping into a fight, and Juri preferred it that way.

"I don't suppose that weird energy leak there is normal."

"What?"

Juri glared at Viper only to find the woman had a small cosmetics case flipped open and held out in front of her. Looking into the built-in mirror, the Korean's eyebrows twitched up in surprise when she found something amiss with her left eye. Besides the sinister violet glow of a functioning machine, a violet aura wafted about her left eye socket and drifted up like steam, almost as if the eye was on fire. Juri reached up to put her hand through the vapor, expecting to feel something. To her relief, the effect was merely cosmetic.

"It glows too," Viper commented. "That's gonna put a kink in any stealth missions you go on, but I guess that's your problem now."

Before Viper could even write this sighting down, a sharp 'tink' echoed throughout the room. The redheaded woman blinked twice and turned her cosmetics case around to look at the mirror. A large crack was the new centerpiece, and it jutted out in all directions to ruin the mirror. With a look of disgust, Viper turned back to Juri.

"D-did you do that?" Juri shrugged, although her expression was a proud and guilty one. "This is why I can't have nice things…"

"Oh… I'm glad you're here," Juri cooed.

With renewed vigor, the Korean turned back to the pedestals and focused on the items positioned atop each one. As a result of her new power, she could feel the weight of the objects in front of her. The tennis ball seemed as light as a feather, the medicine ball felt moderately heavy, and the safe felt like a ton of metal; near impossible to move at her level. Juri thought about moving the tennis ball, as her power was- supposedly- activated by thought.

When she imagined it moving to the left, the ball complied with her whims and twitched before falling off the pedestal's left side. While it was just a tennis ball and a very light one at that, Juri beamed and placed her hands on her hips. Progress was progress, no matter how small it was. She thought about picking up the ball and to her surprise, the ball jumped up into the air. She spent a minute manipulating the ball to her whims, occasionally reaching out to bat the ball with her hands and put it into a manageable position.

"If this doesn't work out, you could earn good money in a circus," Viper muttered. "Move on to level two."

Any other day, Juri would have disregarded such a command. However, she was too enthusiastic to care. After putting the tennis ball back on its pedestal, she focused on the medicine ball. The object quivered under Juri's gaze before it gently rolled off of the pedestal, but the woman stopped it from hitting the ground. A dull pain shot through her mind when she canceled out the ball's velocity. It appeared that her power had a few limits, but Juri figured she could overcome them by increasing her concentration or power levels.

Her eye sparked once and burned more brightly. She smashed the ball against the ground a few times like a basketball before reeling it in with a sway of her hand. Curious, Juri flicked her wrist and watched as the ball spun rapidly. While motions of her body were not required to move an object, it appeared that they helped. She held the ball in front of her and hovered her hands over it like a crystal ball before sending it whizzing past Viper's head. The woman flinched back and nearly dropped her pen and clipboard.

"You look like you're having fun just standing there," Juri said with a sneer. She placed the medicine ball on her finger and spun it with a mental command. "This power could come in handy for reflecting stuff."

Viper scoffed and turned away to write as Juri returned the medicine ball to its pedestal. Psychokinesis opened up a new book of opportunities! If she was to use her ki in conjunction with the power, she could manipulate her own projectiles to curve about and follow targets. Perhaps she could even grab someone and reel them in, seeing as she loved fighting in close quarters. With that in mind, she focused on the small safe and attempted to make it rise.

Immediately she could feel the weight of the object. If she had physically held it in her hands, she wouldn't be under too much stress, but now that her mind was wrapping around the object, she found it considerably harder to move it. Juri was strong-willed, however, and she persisted. Her eye flared up in a bright violet glow as the safe began to shake. Purple energy outlined the object as if it was enveloped within a forcefield. Grinning like a madwoman, Juri raised her hand to the safe and slowly moved her fingers inward.

The safe creaked and groaned under Juri's whims before she closed her hand into a fist. Sounds of shredded metal and brass mechanisms filled the room as the safe was crushed like paper. When she was finished with her handiwork, Juri lowered her hand and watched as the purple field dissipated. She giggled once and arrogantly scratched her nose before deactivating her eye.

"Hehehe, I like this program…" She looked to Viper and struggled to restrain her howls of laughter upon seeing the look of disbelief upon her face. "Well, that was fun!" Juri sighed longingly and moved to the exit doors. "Why don'tcha fill out the opinion fields for me? There's a mission out there that's just begging for me to test this new power!"

Viper huffed in disgust, but Juri was already out the door before she could even voice her displeasure.

* * *

The night was lively and filled with all sorts of sights and sounds. Neon signs illuminated dark streets while oriental lamps glowed and welcomed visitors and travelers alike. Delightful smells wafted throughout the streets and passageways, some hinting of strange soups while others told tales of succulent sea food. The occasional bicycle would squeak under the strain of a stocky individual. Such was the norm in Hong Kong, China.

Juri's dark form dropped into an alley near the harbor area. Once again, she was quite conspicuous with her white, black, and dark violet ensemble complete with a deranged hairstyle. Despite that, the woman was skillful enough to avoid prying eyes and hostile detection. She didn't want to get engaged in a scuffle just yet. After a cautionary glance over her shoulder, she made her way down the alley and towards what an informant described as a back entrance to her destination.

The Korean was not in China for sightseeing. It had come to Seth's attention that one of his subordinates had been jumped by a group of thugs belonging to a local triad. The subordinate managed to escape from them relatively unharmed, but he lost a briefcase containing valuable information on the crime syndicates within China. Needless to say, said subordinate was swiftly disposed of by Seth, who offered no pity. To retrieve the information that was lost, he sent Juri in.

She was interested in what other criminal organizations were up to. Any information that could be used to boost S.I.N.'s efforts or influence was information worth retrieving. Seth probably thought sending his supposedly apathetic agent would mean she wouldn't care about the information, but how wrong he was. Given that the conniving Korean was planning a coup d'état, she needed to know just about everything. Still, she couldn't lie to herself. The main reason she was enthusiastic to retrieve stolen information was because it was likely to be guarded, and that meant she would be able to use her new power.

In just a few minutes of walking, Juri found the back entrance to the building containing the stolen intel. The steam coming from back vents coupled with sour smells told her that she would be walking into a restaurant, most likely the back area where the food was cooked and prepared. Why the triad owned and operated a restaurant was strange to the woman. Unless the place was protected or extorted regularly, the triad should not have exposed themselves to a shady individual like an S.I.N. informant if they didn't want to be visited by an unruly guest. But Juri wasn't complaining.

She walked up to the back entrance and was nudged back by a burly-looking man with a dragon tattoo running down one of his muscled arms. He was a bouncer, but he had no guests to let in. Given the no-nonsense look on the meathead's face, Juri figured she would not be able to get into the building with guile alone. The man issued a warning in his tongue to what he presumed was a concubine of sorts from a rival triad. It proved to be a major mistake as Juri interpreted it as a challenge.

The alleyway echoed the shriek from the Feng Shui Engine as it lit up in its violet glow. Juri twisted forward and forcefully planted her foot into the man's ribs, effectively sending him into the door he was guarding. With another strong kick, the door blew off its hinges under the strain of the man's unconscious body. Both entities crashed to the kitchen floor in a broken heap with a loud bang. Juri smirked as she heard multiple footsteps closing in on her.

Apparently the cooks didn't take too kindly to intruders. She saw herself in and looked to her left to see a long countertop that spanned the length of the kitchen. Flanking the countertop were other counters devoted to certain steps in the cooking process, like the cutting and preparation stations. Multiple cooking utensils hung from overhead racks while pots and pans filled with different in-progress dishes sizzled on stovetops. At the very end of the long kitchen was a room separated by a flimsy-looking door. Most likely the intelligence was held in there, but there was a problem…

Three cooks, all of whom had the same dragon tattoos as the guard did, glared at Juri with sharp blades in their hands.

"Splendid timing!" Juri applauded as she clapped her hands. "Tell you what, whoever remains conscious the longest gets the honor of making me dinner. Whataya say?"

One cook threw a meat cleaver straight at Juri's head in response. The Korean sighed and stopped the spinning weapon from embedding itself in her skull with her psychokinesis. The triad cooks gasped and recoiled at the display of power, and Juri basked in their surprise for a moment before putting the blade back into play. She sent the cleaver back at the cook who threw it and hit him directly in the head with the flat, blunt side of the weapon. With a groan of pain, the cook fell to the ground and held his forehead.

"Oh, don't give me that. I thought it was a great deal myself," Juri muttered sardonically.

The other two cooks, although demoralized from Juri's display, were not dissuaded from protecting their kitchen. The smaller of the two dashed forward and slashed at Juri's side with a butcher's knife. She jumped back to avoid the swipe as well as the follow-up to her chest. She sidestepped a wild jab and grabbed onto the man's arm. The knife fell from his grip when she twisted and shook his wrist alongside smashing a foot into his lower leg.

In trying to pick up his weapon, the smaller cook lashed out with a straight kick to give himself some breathing room. Juri happily obliged him and darted away. The reason being for her generosity was because there was a boiling pot of water nearby that looked particularly scalding. When the cook picked up his weapon and tried to come at her again, Juri grabbed the pot with her mind and dumped it over his head. She giggled when the man screamed at being doused with boiling hot water.

The other of the two cooks, a fat man of sorts, came at Juri from behind and grabbed her arms. He raised his arms and tried to put her in a lock, but she retaliated by dropping to the floor and kicking his legs out from underneath him. She kicked the cook with the pot on his head for good measure before she slid across the middle countertop to give herself some room. When the fat cook got back to his feet, Juri smiled at him from the other side of the counter as a frying pan floated about her head.

"Spang!" she shouted as she sent the frying pan across the side of the man's head. She waited for the clutter of fat and metal to hit the ground before reveling in her accomplishments. "Ooooh, I love that sound!"

Turning around, she narrowly avoided a punch from the first cook she hit with a cleaver and countered his poor hook with a rising elbow to the face. The tall man spiraled into a countertop and sent a few utensils flying to the ground with a clang. In his haste to get back up, he toppled a plate of grease over into the open flame of a stovetop. Immediately the grease caught fire and spread over the countertops with a vengeance. The grease also managed to spatter against the tall cook's dingy uniform, which, unfortunately, caught fire.

Juri shielded her face from the flames and backed away. So far, the kitchen fight was interesting, but it wasn't very rewarding. Already her playmates- which were not the best of fighters- had decided to screw up and rob her of a great fight. With the flames threatening to spread, the building didn't have too much longer before the fire department arrived, and that tended to bring the authorities. With a look of downplayed sympathy towards the cook who was now furiously swatting at his flaming uniform, Juri turned to the door at the end of the room.

She kicked her way through the door and into a small office of sorts. After searching high and low for a few minutes, she managed to find a black briefcase tucked between a desk and a wall. She grabbed it and placed it under her arm as the sprinkler system in the building activated and doused the area in water. While not in the least bit bothered, the Korean wanted to get out of the building quickly. She meandered out of the office and back into the kitchen.

As she was searching, the trio of cooks took the opportunity to flee the premises. In their place was a well-toned man with a much more prominent dragon tattoo, and he was at the end of the kitchen to stop Juri's escape. He stood at a fair six feet tall with no shirt and dark trousers. A vibrant red headband was wrapped around his head. He wielded a sharp machete in his right hand. It didn't take a genius to know that this was the head chef; a man who should not be taken lightly.

Through the steam from the rapidly extinguishing flames Juri watched as the chef twirled his machete in his hand. The blade cut through the air and made several whoosing sounds as it barely missed the man's arm and body. When he was done displaying his mastery of the blade, he crouched down low and held his machete at the ready. Juri was anything but impressed at the martial display. She narrowed her eyes and reached out with her mind to manipulate the man to her whims.

First, she grabbed his headband and dragged it over his eyes. With a few flicks of her wrists, she tied the headband tight enough so the fabric practically cut into his skin. As the man grunted and tried to regain his sight, Juri pulled his legs out from under him. Immediately the chef fell to the floor on his back and narrowly avoided getting stabbed by his machete as it clattered to the floor next to him. The coup de grace came when Juri pulled every blunt instrument from the overhead racks and dropped them on the man.

"You people aren't very accommodating," Juri said as she walked outside with briefcase in hand. "I'm going to leave a very strongly-worded review. Maybe then you'll improve."

Her assignment completed, Juri deactivated her Feng Shui Engine and casually made her way back through the alley she came from. She looked back at the restaurant that was now smoking and went over her actions. For all that she knew, the new psychokinesis power for her eye was nothing more than a gimmick. It gave her the choice to make fights more or less interesting by manipulating objects and fighters to her will, and that was just about it. However, she was still very curious as to what her new power could do, and if the recent fight was any indication, why should she stop with throwing items around?

Giggling softly to herself, she decided against immediately calling for pickup and activated her eye again. She could have sworn she heard more triad thugs approaching. She wouldn't touch them at all this time…

* * *

Seth dropped his pen to his desk and sat back in his chair. He tried to focus on the papers and documents he had just perused and edited, but after every line he read he couldn't help but glance up to the doors of his office. Ever since his confidante had that program installed in her eye, he found himself with more peace and quiet than usual. Instead of being bothered by her incessant talking and her usual unreasonable demeanor, Seth was left alone. He figured it was too good to be true, but as the days flew by, he eventually got used to his solitude.

Juri was content. More than that, she was having fun with her new power. She no longer went out of her way to bother Seth or get in the way of his plans. All she wanted to do was play with the program she was testing. Her enthusiasm was unexpected, and more surprising than that, her results were astounding. Viper handed Seth the results of her testing in conjunction with Juri returning from China, and both reports were a welcome addition to Seth's newfound peace.

With a bemused smile, the synthetic man closed his eyes and focused on the sounds of his office. The gentle ticks of a vintage grandfather clock filled the room along with the soft bubbling of a large personal aquarium. If he concentrated hard enough, he could hear the faint chirps and trills of the wildlife that managed to echo through the ventilation system from the rainforest nearby. But the best sound of all was his own inner voice. He could hear himself think for the first time in a month!

Just before he could become too comfortable with his solitude, a loud crash reverberated through the room. Seth's eyes snapped open and focused on his doors. He mentally counted down the seconds before something came crashing through them, as was per the usual. Instead, one of the doors swung back and smacked into an unknown individual who had the misfortune of being near it. Seth at first figured it was a guard, but after he heard the angry, feminine moans of pain, he arched his brow.

Stepping into the office looking worse for the wear was Juri Han. Her forehead held a couple nasty-looking bruises while her hair was disheveled and out of its usual style. She held her temples and gritted her teeth as she approached Seth. The synthetic man could see that the woman's eye was activated and glowing brightly with the PK-B01 program's added cosmetic effect attached to it. Anticipating an outburst, Seth sighed mentally and folded his hands across his desk.

"I want it out," Juri grumbled.

"…Excuse me?"

"Get this stupid program, power, whatever the hell it is… get it out!" Juri shouted as she pointed to her left eye. "It glitched out, and now I can't even think without it doing a number on me!"

Seth blinked once and shook his head.

"I'm afraid I don't understand. Why do you have your engine activated?"

"It's stuck this way! I was testing it out again when it crashed, and now I can't shut it off. Do you have any idea how many times I was hit by clipboards and coffee mugs on my way up here?" Juri hissed and dodged a random attaché case as it was thrown at her. "Son of a bi-"

"Juri, control yourself!" Seth exclaimed as he held onto his coffee mug for safekeeping. "Unless you've finally gone insane, there is no way the program would react like this on its own."

"Uh huh, sure. You try having an engine that throws crap at your head at random; see if you like it!"

Seth lowered his brow and glared at Juri. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had expected something like this to happen. The Feng Shui Engine was still prone to crashes and glitches, but it had never done anything other than short out. Now that a new program was packaged in with it, it didn't know how to handle the crash and as a result, it reacted violently to the user. That, sadly, was not expected.

"Don't give me that look," Juri snapped as she jabbed an accusatory finger at her boss. "Fair share of diagnostic run-throughs, my ass! This is your fault, so fix it!"

The woman took a cautionary step back as Seth's desk lunged forward and threatened to jab into her legs. With a growl of defeat, the chrome man held onto his desk.

"Very well. Go down to the FSE chamber room and flag down the scientists there." Seth reached over and grabbed his trembling coffee mug before it could fly up and hit his investment. "Now get out before you break something important."

Juri threw her hands up and muttered under her breath in relief. She would get her wish and the PK-B01 program would be removed from her eye for repairs and multiple diagnostic run-throughs. Despite the unfortunate effects of a crash, the program was useful and did its job well enough. As Juri turned around to leave, a lonely book from one of Seth's bookcases flew up and hit her dead-center in the face with a loud whap. She shuddered in pain for a moment before tearing the book away from her face.

Before Seth could even express his robotic sympathies, he found the same book flying at his face.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Once again, I thank all who have reviewed so far, and I appreciate that a few people have thought up good ideas for future chapters. I want to address a problem here: a certain 'guest' in this part of the site who preys upon Street Fighter fanfic writers. Your 'reviews' of many stories in this category are anything but reviews. They are simply comments and inane suggestions, sometimes outright commands and needless information that in no way pertains to the story. I feel quite safe and sound by saying that hardly anyone on this site has read or cares about any of the UDON comics and whatever information is within them. Writers write for themselves, not you.

Your opinions and views are your own, and you have a right to keep them. However, when you push them over on others and outright dismiss their opinions as wrong or false, there is a problem. I don't appreciate your incessant ramblings of topics I don't care about and your multiple 'reviews' per chapter, and neither does anyone else (except Immatureboys, who you seem to be very chummy with). Instead of hiding behind a guest account like a coward, why not make an account so we can discuss things like civilized human beings? I don't expect anything from you, so you might just surprise me. Either review and contribute to the site like a true user or leave.

If your conviction for Juri, Ryu, UDON comics and the Satsui no Hado is so strong, why haven't you decided to write fanfiction of your own? You could be doing so much with your potential, but you're wasting it by moaning about. That would be pitiful.


	3. Shadow Clones

After the complete and utter failure that was the last upgrade, and after having to hear a lecture from Seth on how it wasn't a complete and utter failure, Juri wasn't very enthusiastic about the next one. She trusted her boss just enough to believe that he wasn't out to get her, but being the one testing the programs made her question the synthetic human's loyalty. Was he really planning on handing these programs out to members of S.I.N. to boost survivability and efficiency, or was he just pulling her leg? Granted, Juri wanted to believe the latter option, but humor was beneath Seth. If she had wronged him- well, more than usual-, he would retaliate in person rather than rely on flawed programs to do the job.

Still, there was another program to test out, and Seth hinted that it would be one that Juri would enjoy out of all the others. Skeptical, the Korean scoffed but acknowledged her boss's claim. She found the previous program that she had been given to be interesting, despite how flawed it was when it encountered a crash. If anything, bending the programs to her whims would be a challenge. Far be it from her to turn down a challenge, no matter the risk.

The psychokinesis program was removed from the Feng Shui Engine quickly and efficiently. Thankfully, the program did not affect Juri's eye adversely, thus returning the engine back to its usual mode of operation. After recovering from the torture she received from having items lobbed at her without pause, Juri returned to the FSE maintenance room and offered herself up once again for the second program. She borderline threatened Seth beforehand to double-check the program before its installation, to which he replied that it was ready for operation.

Once the hissing and squeals from the FSE maintenance room died out, Juri emerged from the sphere feeling underwhelmed. While the maintenance sphere's having its way with the Korean's eye was uncomfortable enough, the feeling of nothingness bothered her. She expected to feel something, but unlike the first program, there was no surge of power or feeling of accomplishment. Suspicious, Juri shot a glare in Seth's general direction and began to conduct a self-inspection.

As her hands ran down her body, Seth chuckled to himself and folded his arms.

"Don't worry. I assure you that these programs will never disfigure your… well, your figure. We're creating technology, not bending the body with viruses and mutations."

"Just making sure," Juri grumbled.

"It's as if you don't trust me, Juri," Seth replied as his eyebrows arched.

"Oh please, don't tell me you're hurt. You don't have the capacity for that."

"Hn, yes, quite." Seth procured a clipboard from a nearby computer console and handed it off to his confidante. "Here. Here's what you'd probably like to know."

Before Juri could take a cursory glance at the paper on the clipboard and let loose a sardonic comment, Seth ushered her out of the room. Insulted, Juri turned around and brandished a fist only to have doors come down to separate her from her boss. She huffed and kicked the door.

"Dammit Seth! If you wanted "me-time", just ask for it!" When she didn't receive a response, she sighed and turned to walk down the corridors to the training room. "Keep it together, girl. His time will come soon enough…"

To take her mind off of her insufferable boss and to resist temptation by continuing to scheme, Juri looked to the clipboard in her hands.

Her new program was labeled as TM-32, which threw Juri off because the simple name for it was "Shadow Clone". She let loose a disgusted grunt at the thought of the scientists giving _her _programs stupid names and designations that only they could understand. Apparently, whatever a "Shadow Clone" was, it was basically a spectral or illusionary copy of the user. It was meant to be used as a distraction, or as a possible aide in skirmishes. Within the preliminary results shown in the text, it was deemed possible to create a fully-fledged clone of the user that was both physical and capable of abstract thought.

Juri was surprised to discover that she found the program to be right up her alley. She hated working with others unless they were smart and stayed out of her way, which they hardly ever did. Playing well with others was not something she was known for. The woman always had the idea that the only person she could rely on was herself, and if the program did what it was supposed to, she would be able to do just that. S.I.N. could always use more like herself, the woman thought arrogantly.

She discarded the clipboard to the side once she arrived within the training room. Of course, Crimson Viper was there, much to Juri's displeasure. The way she stood with her holier-than-thou posture and I-told-you-so expression threatened to get under the Korean's skin, but she looked away and focused on what mattered. By no means did she think that she deserved to be mocked. Just like Seth, Viper's time would come as well, only with a different fate attached.

Viper made the first move as she began to write on a clipboard of her own.

"Hey there sport," she said in a patronizing tone. "Everything alright? Feeling good? I don't know about you, but I'm feeling very enthusiastic about observing you today."

"Good. I could use a willing test subject," Juri replied with a smirk.

"…What?" Viper's face fell for a moment before she scoffed. "You wouldn't dare. Seth would come down on you like a righteous hammer if you offed me."

"So? It's not like anything of value would be lost." Juri retorted. She laughed at Viper's sullen expression and folded her arms. "Oh, alright, alright… I'll humor you. I'll just make a subject of my own. That's what this program's supposed to do, anyway."

Pushing Viper aside, Juri went to the center of the room and quickly glanced about the area. With the last program, she had objects to test with. This time around, the pedestals that were once there before were now sunk back into their receptacles in the titled floor. She smiled at the noticeable dent the metal safe left in the floor before composing herself. With this program, all she needed to do was to rely on herself. Nothing could have been easier for a woman known for her cunning and quick-thinking, among other things.

She exhaled slowly and activated her Feng Shui Engine. Power coursed through her veins and excited her body, as usual. Juri clenched and unclenched her fists repeatedly to get a feel for the new program's effects, but there were none that were apparent. A glare towards Viper revealed nothing but a grimace. After cracking her crappy cosmetics case's mirror, the last thing the agent wanted to do was describe her coworker's appearance.

Shrugging, Juri focused on what she had read from the program analysis. In theory, all she had to do was create a motion for summoning a clone whilst pooling her energy into completing such a task. Desire played a crucial role in the act as well, as whatever Juri desired would soon come to her as long as she was determined enough. She decided to take it slow by sanctioning off her full power, instead taking as much as she needed to get the job done. There was no need to push her luck right out of the starting gate.

Her hands moved up and in front of her body as she contemplated her actions. She waved her hands about slowly, but to no avail. She then tried to form a small ball of energy between her hands, but all she got was a tiny spark of violet that quickly fizzled out. Juri tried out a few more motions; many more lavish than the last before the scribbling of Viper's pen began to irritate her. No doubt about it, the red-headed harpy was leaving bad marks. Juri whirled on her and snapped her fingers as she prepared to fire an exasperated volley in her direction only to stop short.

Violet flame danced on her fingertips, bright and sinister yet calming and docile against her hands. Curious, Juri looked to her other hand and snapped her fingers to find that the motion worked to her liking. Through her eye's user interface, she could see that the two spectral batches of fire had their own energy signatures, and as she continued to look at them, they were steadily dropping. Juri slowly waved her hands back and forth and smiled as she felt the fire return to their previous splendor.

"You've never been able to do that, right?" Viper asked as she watched intently.

"Right. I've always kicked it out; never held it in my hands." She then looked down at the floor and flashed a determined grin. "Hmm… I got an idea."

The fire in the palms of Juri's hands sparked and flared up again as she waved her hands away from her body before bringing them to her sides. She thought about illusions, of copies and trickery, all in her image. She shot up straight for half a second before bending down to place her hands against the floor. Immediately the violet flames in her hands crackled and spread along the floor in a circle, easily surrounding the wielder within a ten foot radius.

Viper jumped back as the flames danced about Juri like a crowd of adoring fans. The woman within the fire giggled and watched as the violet fire formed two small patches off to the side where she placed her hands before the main body died out. Eventually, the two patches built themselves higher and higher into the air before they eventually became pillars of purple haze. A hand reached out and grasped the air. A leg came out and planted itself on the floor. A pair of gleaming eyes emerged from the flames.

After a few seconds of waiting, Juri beamed and rubbed her hands in glee. Two spectral and feminine figures stood on either side of her once the pillars of misty flame evaporated away. The figures had every defining physical characteristic of the one who summoned them from the intimidating horned-hairstyle down to the baggy pants and long belt. Without a word, they turned to face their master. Their violet eyes shined brightly against their purplish, misty body, eagerly awaiting a command.

"Is it just me, or did the percentage of capable employees just rise?" Juri asked rhetorically.

The shadow clone to her right chuckled while the one on her left placed its hands on its hips.

"Oh god, more of you. This is the worst idea since your empl-"

"Finish that sentence," Juri growled, "and you'll regret it."

Viper, upon seeing Juri's two clones glare at her and lower themselves into intimidating stances, decided to hold her tongue. As she had said before, her task in the room was to observe her insufferable coworker. Begrudgingly, the agent kept her head down and wrote on her clipboard. She could tell that there was a proud, cocky expression on Juri's face, but she ignored it. While the Korean had enough sense to not strike out at the slightest provocation, her clones seemed like another story.

"Uh huh, yeah," Juri said as she went to pat a clone's back. "That's what I th-"

To Juri's surprise, her hand fell through her shadowy clone's back and out her stomach as if there was nothing there but vapors. Said clone gave her master an incredulous look as she watched her hands violate her body in an attempt to find something with substance. Juri grunted in astonishment and swiped at her other clone only to find that her hand simply phased through it. It seemed that the clones were nothing but illusions, and while Juri was at first put off by the revelation, it gave her a splendid idea. If the clones had nothing physical to strike with, and if they could not be struck, they were the ideal distraction. They could be used to confuse an opponent, thus allowing the real Juri to come in for the kill.

To test this, Juri pointed to a corner of the training room and glanced at one of her clones. She didn't even voice her command, as the shadowy clone quickly realized what its master wanted and quickly strode over to the corner. Juri looked to her other clone and wanted it to do the same, albeit much faster. The clone obliged its master's desire and broke apart into a small cloud of vapors before reforming in a different corner. They continued to look at Juri for direction, and when she gestured towards Viper with a sinister smile, they returned the expression with ones of their own.

Viper looked up and turned around just in time to dodge a wild hook to her face. She ducked and rose to deliver a quick counter jab, but to her dismay, the clone she struck vanished and allowed the second to rush in unhindered. It sent a hard kick into Viper's side which the woman anticipated. To her surprise, the leg phased through her body leaving nothing but a chilling feeling behind. The second clone was dispelled once she composed herself and whacked it upside the head with her clipboard.

Immediately she whirled on Juri, but the Korean was absent. Her whereabouts were quickly answered once Viper felt her foot press against her back. Sighing, Viper raised her hands in defeat and turned her head to glare in Juri's direction.

"Now just think," Juri started as she deactivated her eye with a snap of her fingers, "if you were anyone else, this would be a lot more interesting."

Juri lowered her foot and backed off a bit, thus granting Viper freedom of movement once again.

"Cute. Very cute," Viper growled. She brushed her sleeves for a moment before glancing about for the clones. "Are they gone already?"

"Already?" Juri repeated. "Are they supposed to stick around longer?"

"Depends. Are you going to try to attack me again?"

"Viper, we're in a training room which I will remind you is the one Seth pointed me towards for testing. I'm using everything I'm given to test these programs, and you're finding fault with that?" Folding her arms, Juri shook her head. "For shame, Viper. For shame."

Viper squirmed a little under Juri's gaze before she straightened up.

"…I'm just wondering about your clones. The scientists said whatever clones you'd create would be able to attack on their own, but those last two were like illusions."

"Well, I didn't put all of my energy into the program. Only just enough to get the job done."

"Juri Han? Holding back?" The two women shared a short chuckle together before Viper added: "Hmm. Try it again, but put a lot of energy into it. I want to see a fully-fledged clone of you."

"You do?" Juri replied with a tilt of her head. She smiled and narrowed her eyes. "Getting ideas while on the job, huh?"

"You're full of yourself," Viper hissed. "I don't want to see anything, but the scientists want to kn-"

"Oh, OK Viper, whatever you say," Juri interjected with a nonchalant shrug.

With the brief bout of banter out of the way, she returned to her previous at-the-ready stance and slowly exhaled once again before activating her eye. With ki dancing at her fingertips, the taekwando practitioner snapped her fingers. Two plumes of violet fire manifested themselves in the palms of her hands, but instead of simply allowing them to sit there, Juri fed them. She fanned the flames by pouring a great amount of ki into them until they grew large and chaotic. With an exaggerated flourish, she brought her hands together and combined the flames.

A brilliant flash of light enveloped the room. Juri, wincing against the blinding light, looked away for a moment. Her actions did more than just disorient her. Whatever it was that she did, a stinging sensation ran rampant throughout her body as if there was a force on either side of her pulling her apart. She faltered forward and wiped her brow as she attempted to catch her breath. Her ki ran through her veins and refilled arteries that were sucked dry by her summoning. Upon composing herself once again, Juri looked to her right hand.

An orb of violet rested snugly there, gleaming like a gemstone yet modest like a marble. Juri cradled it and was surprised to find a steady beat that came from within. It felt like the ping of a life support machine, or a heartbeat. Without a doubt, the orb contained another clone, but it seemed like it would be more than just an illusionary haze. Juri could sense the potential within the orb, and she loved it. It was her own potential after all… only copied.

Without dallying, Juri tossed the orb to the ground and watched as it shattered. A vortex of energy erupted from the point of impact and swirled ever higher until it resembled a large and hazy purple sphere. Juri caught Viper's intrigued yet mocking scoff and nodded. This was not a good program for stealth, but the Korean didn't really pay it much mind. As long as her program did its job before it was time to sneak about, there was no problem.

Juri leaned back and folded her arms as she noticed something within the now-dissipating sphere of energy. While the illusionary twins of her were comparable enough, the new clone within the sphere looked remarkably similar, yet still different from the original. Pink flesh graced the clone's body. Whatever fabrics that clung to Juri's figure were dyed in a darker, opposite color for the clone, and its eyes were brighter yet more sinister than those of the original's. With the sphere of energy having evaporated away, the clone turned and looked at the one who summoned it.

For a moment, the two simply stared at each other. The clone was much more than a simple illusion, so much more that it couldn't be something so readily disposable. It… She perfectly mimicked Juri's expressions down to every last twitch and quiver. They scrutinized each other as if they were gauging each others' abilities without jumping into battle. After a short while, the two walked towards each other and proceeded to- in Viper's eyes- backhand the other.

Instead, Juri scraped the back of her hand against her clone's as it passed, and then came back to slap and slide down. She offered her fist and watched as her clone bopped it from above, then she did the same to her. Both women twirled forward and scraped against each others' backs as they passed before turning on their heels. They reeled back and launched their hands forward to complete their impromptu ritual. The product of such an act? A boisterous hi-five.

"Countless hours spent devising a powerful program, and you're using it for this?" Viper asked with an incredulous shrug of her shoulders.

"Hey, it's team building!" Juri replied with a giggle.

"And it's working," the clone interjected with a smirk. "I have the upmost confidence in myself."

"Oh you."

Viper grunted and backed away from the two. A dangerous sadomasochist was bad enough, but another one? S.I.N. would be in for a rough time. Given's Juri's intrusive and patronizing nature, privacy would become near-nonexistent. No, safety and peace would be a much more pressing concern now. To make it worse, the Korean had the potential and power to create more than one clone, so whatever ill effects had the possibility of being amplified.

"You know, we've got all this room to ourselves," Juri's clone said as she gestured to the training room. Her glowing eyes twinkled with dangerous energy. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Juri cracked her knuckles and twisted her lips up into a cruel smile.

"Oooohhh yeah…"

As quickly as the idea was voiced, the twin spiders decided to put it into play. They reeled back to give each other a fair amount of starting distance before flinging themselves forward. A leg whirled overhead. Hooks grazed cheeks. Feet threatened to break the skin. The Koreans were sparing not as enemies but as equals. To an onlooker, they were playing with each other, and they would be mostly correct in their assumption.

Viper grunted and rolled her eyes as she slid down the wall of the training room to a sitting position. She readied her clipboard and tried to drown out the playful banter amidst the sounds of limbs whishing through the air. Observation be damned; the twin spiders were just getting started, and it would be high time before they had enough. By that time, the American agent would have a deep-rooted hatred of her inconsistent coworker.

Well, more hatred than usual.

"What the hell was Seth thinking?" Viper scoffed.

* * *

There are some missions that even the most grizzled and talented of agents would shy away from. For some, the concept of stealth was hard to grasp. Others would not survive in a fair fight unless they got the jump on their target. Retrieving items from hostile spots made a few agents anxious while the mere thought of close and personal espionage brought most agents to their knees. But the worst mission of all involved protecting the most volatile and unpredictable of entities imaginable…

Man.

Deep within the slums of the South American city of Rio de Janeiro was a solitary scientist. His ties to S.I.N. were strong, as he had been conducting research of the highest caliber and secrecy within the hustle and bustle of the third largest metropolitan area in the country. Whereas others were quickly found when they did their research in far-off places, the scientist enjoyed the safety that came with hiding in plain sight. His research would be instrumental in giving S.I.N. a foothold in new markets, as well as a metaphorical lance of knowledge to strike Shadaloo with. The only problem with the research was that it was carried by the scientist, and he needed safe passage back to the main facility in **[REDACTED]** in order for it to mean anything.

Seth knew the value of the research well, as he could see its potential much more clearly than its organizer could. He understood the scientist's anxiety and sent his most powerful agent to protect and escort him. Due to the scientist's solitude, he had unintentionally distanced himself from S.I.N.'s staff and its recent events. He knew only those closest to him as well as the main head of the division. Regrettably, he also knew about the agent Seth had sent to him, and he was dreading her arrival.

There were many stories about Juri Han, and absolutely none of them were good. One story went about that she had once killed a guard for staring at her while another similar story hinted that she had tortured another for simply not being terrified of her as she walked past. There were many rumors about her too. Some spoke of a mental illness that the woman suffered from- be it insanity or schizophrenia- that was the source of her unmerciful cruelty while others remarked that her wickedness was her own doing, and that she killed purely for entertainment. When Juri finally arrived on the scientist's doorstep, he was prepared for the worst guardian imaginable.

However, what he had expected was not what he received. Standing tall and proud was the Korean woman in an unassuming set of casual clothing. She did not look like the killer he had heard about, but rather a passionate agent who had accepted death as a part of life. Rumors of her so-called insanity and spiteful attitude were slowly debunked as the scientist followed her throughout the bustling streets of the city. She was calm, calculative, cunning, and never once shot a venomous glare of disgust in his direction. Quite the opposite, actually.

"Just where is the extraction point again?" the scientist asked as he nervously brought his briefcase filled with research closer to his body. "Is it any further?"

"It's near the water on some rooftops just about four minutes due north-east," Juri replied smoothly. She flashed the scientist a warm look. "Don't worry, if anything bad happens, I'll protect you."

"Truly?"

"Of course," Juri reassured him. "Why? You don't believe me?"

The scientist squirmed a little under her gaze, but he managed to dodge her question.

"I'm just worried that we might get jumped. A few months ago I got into a bad situation with the local 'wildlife'. Kept to myself after that, seeing as somebody would take notice of a pasty-faced guy in a white coat in an area like this."

"You worry too much," Juri replied with a dismissing wave of her hand.

While the Korean's words were calming and reassuring, the scientist couldn't help but feel paranoid. Nothing worth having in life was taken without a hitch. Things were too calm, too precise. While Juri carried herself with an air of competence, she seemed rather complacent. She was not expecting to be jumped, just like a tiger did not expect to be hunted. Such behavior could not be ignored by the scientist.

His eyes searched every nook and cranny he came across. Every person, unassuming or not, suffered from his scrutinizing gaze. With Juri's presence front and center, he had plenty opportunity to do so. He could have sworn he heard footsteps rapidly approaching them from behind, but upon glancing over his shoulder, all he found were a few negligible citizens. He could have sworn he saw a flash of red overhead on the tin rooftops, but when he snapped his head to look up, the clear blue sky mocked him. Something was going to happen, and it seemed like he was the only one expecting it.

Before he could warn Juri, the path the two were treading was suddenly blocked by two uniformed men. The blue color of their uniforms combined with the utility belt filled with tools meant for incapacitating criminals made it clear that these men were part of the law enforcement. Needless to say, their presence here was an ill omen. Juri snapped back away from their initial entry and narrowly managed to avoid being grabbed by them. She glanced behind herself and saw more men in blue approaching from behind.

"It's an ambush…" the scientist muttered.

"Hold it right there," one of the men barked as he brandished his baton.

"I don't take orders from fools like you," Juri said playfully. Her eyes darted between the two men in front of her before they focused on the scientist. "Follow my lead…"

The strength and dexterity of the two uniformed men couldn't save them from an irrepressible force. With a flying kick to one and a roundhouse to the other, the path was cleared. Juri spared no cunning words and took the scientist's hand in hers. She darted through the dazed men and ducked through a couple dingy lean-tos with the scientist in tow. If time was of the essence and they were compromised, she could not risk glancing back every now and then to check if her charge had fallen behind.

Everything around them was so run down that it felt like the buildings could collapse on top of them. It was a claustrophobic's worst nightmare, but for Juri, it was a playground. She constantly changed her direction and path to throw off her pursuers, but she opted against taking the flashier and straining paths if she was to keep the scientist with her. When she felt that the man could keep up she let him go and knew that he would follow her. The exhausted grunts told stories of the man's poor stamina, yet still he ran behind the Korean, much to her relief.

When the two entered into a narrow alleyway, the thuds of heavy footsteps that had once dogged their steps suddenly fell silent. The scientist hardly noticed them over the sound of his wheezing, but Juri, ever observant, did. She slowed her pace to a jog and craned her neck to look up at the tops of the buildings she was coming under. A new sound echoed through the wind; the sound of boots on tin. The helicopter should have been heard instead, but perhaps it was delayed...

Juri emerged from the alleyway out onto a rather poorly constructed soccer field. She knew well about the dangers of going out into the open, but her desire to get the mission over with pushed away whatever second thoughts she had. In times of great action, sometimes the simplest and brashest of decisions were the most favorable. She thought little of South Americans' love of soccer or their troubled dwellings and reached behind herself to grab the scientist, but to her dismay, the man was not there. She turned around just in time to see a buxom figure descend upon the man and bash him against a nearby chain-link fence before he could even yell.

The scientist crumpled to the ground, but a hand clamped onto his wrist and pulled him back up. Juri sighed and scratched her nose as she watched her dazed charge get handcuffed to the fence. The figure turned to Juri and glared at her with stern brown eyes. It figured that Interpol would eventually catch wind of the scientist, and at the most inappropriate of times. It also figured that if it was a matter of great importance, they would send their star officer.

"I'm going to give you one chance," growled the Chinese Interpol officer, Chun-Li. "Turn yourself in, and I'll go easy on you."

"But I like it rough, baby," Juri retorted as she leaned back into her fighting stance.

Chun-Li grunted in disappointment before she too transitioned into a stance of her own. Her form was set just enough to avoid her legs being knocked out from underneath her by a quick sweep from Juri. She blocked a wild roundhouse and countered with a jab to the stomach, which her adversary narrowly managed to avoid. Chun-Li expected to be allowed a chance to strike, as per Juri's sadistic and playful nature, but the Korean kept on the offensive. It seemed to her that she was stressed for time, but she wasn't about to leave any loose ends untied, especially if they were to tangle up whatever operation she was participating in.

After a few more dangerous swipes were blocked, Chun-Li saw a chance for a counter and took it. She ducked under Juri's leg and turned to send a leg straight up. Her boot caught right under the Korean's jaw and lifted her off of the ground with a savage crunch that reverberated throughout the area. Chun-Li blinked in disbelief as her adversary fell to the ground. She hadn't expected to score a strike so early in the fight, and one so powerful.

She did not get the chance to muse about the oddity, as Juri kicked one of Chun-Li's legs back and forced her to stumble. As she dropped her guard, she was punished with a hard kick into her ribs. Stubbornly, the officer held on and managed to keep standing just long enough for Juri to get back into the fray again. The two fought awkwardly with neither woman gaining the upper hand. Chun-Li scored more jabs, light kicks, and hits overall than Juri did, but she in turn scored more powerful attacks capable of breaking bones.

The turning point came when Chun-Li overexerted herself on a missed kick, thus granting Juri a wondrous opportunity to knock the woman down with a sweep. The officer fell to the ground and arched her back as she loosed a cry of pain. Groggily, the scientist raised his head and looked to the fight after trying unsuccessfully to nudge his discarded briefcase closer to him. He watched with morbid curiosity as the officer slowly scooted away from the now-manic Korean, but all in vain.

Juri began to gather an eerie amount of ki energy into her right hand when a shot rang out.

A force like no other pierced the Korean's leg and knocked it out from underneath her. The woman fell to the ground and howled in pain. Her mind immediately came to the conclusion that she had been shot, but while there was relief in knowing what hit her, she felt fear and anger in the fact that she had been shot in the first place. She never got shot, not even once. She had been shot at, of course, but no bullet had ever struck home. Gritting her teeth, Juri rolled over to her side and glared at the one who had shot her.

A small blonde woman in a red cloak dropped down from the tin rooftops with a smoking pistol in her hands.

"You didn't have to do that, Cammy," Chun-Li wheezed to the blonde as she got back to her feet. "I thought we agreed not to shoot her."

"I agreed to nothing," Cammy shot back, obviously agitated. "I'm not going to sit back and watch my partner die, and I'm not about to let this _witch_ slink away."

Cammy turned back to the prone form of Juri and begrudgingly returned her pistol to a holster attached to her hip. She was a proud woman, some might even call her arrogant. To her, there was always a way to tackle a target without lethal force. Her skills more than allowed her to perform her duties to the letter, so the use of firearms and weapons seemed like cheating. However, when it came to Juri Han, Cammy made an exception. After constantly being dogged and beaten by the woman and having to suffer the consequences of losing over and over again, anything went.

"Alright… Can you restrain her?" Chun-Li asked as she turned to the mortified scientist. "I'll need to prepare him for transport."

"Sure, sure." Cammy reached into a pocket of her cloak and pulled out a couple zipties. She maliciously approached Juri and found a bit of satisfaction in seeing her in pain. "If you'd like, I could take that bullet out," she stated in a hostile, condescending tone.

The approach was not to be taken lightly. Cammy figured her adversary's eye could flare up at any moment and take her off guard, so the sooner the woman was restrained, the better. Juri glowered at the woman like a beaten animal, but beneath her façade Cammy could see a faint smirk. If that didn't throw the blonde operative off, the pained giggling did. She scowled and narrowed her eyes.

"What's so funny?"

Instead of a spiteful retort, Cammy was greeted with a response she did not expect. Right before her very eyes the form of the Korean suddenly burst into flame. Cammy took a step back on reflex and watched, aghast that something like spontaneous combustion was actually real and mortified that this could be some new trick. Juri didn't seem to care that purple flames were consuming her body, nor did she care that she seemed to be vanishing. All she did was grin wickedly before the flames completely consumed her, leaving just the glow of her eyes behind.

The sound of something hitting the ground accompanied by a gasp of pain behind the operative reached her ears and, despite her confusion as a result of what just happened, she turned around to address them. Standing behind her was another Juri Han, but it was one that Cammy was used to. The white trousers, the sinister breastplate, sadistic-themed bracelets, and the usual condescending, dominating sneer. Even the scientist looked amazed at who was standing in front of him, which was cause enough for alarm. Had everyone been deceived by an… illusion?

Cammy had no time to muse on this as Juri reached down to grab Chun-Li, who had been unfortunate enough to be the target of the Korean's stealthy strike. She pulled the officer up by her collar and reveled in the moment of bliss for a few seconds before she violently threw her at the Delta Red operative. Cammy, much to her credit, managed to catch her partner in her arms. However, before she could set her partner down and check her for injuries, the true Juri rushed forward and kicked the two away.

"You idiots!" she laughed as she stood by the purple flames. "Did you really believe that I'd just let myself walk into a trap? That I'd let you shoot me? That I'd let those men behind you rush in to help? I'm amazed you haven't figured it out yet."

"Figured what out?" Chun-Li groaned as she was helped up.

Juri bared her teeth and spoke in a harsh whisper.

"Every inkling of confidence that you get is a gift from me… Don't you ever forget that." She glanced down at the flickering purple fires that once were her clone before snickering. "So, whataya think of my partner? Come on, come on, I need all the feedback I can get."

"I don't much care for you or any of your little tricks," Cammy growled. She pulled off her cloak and whipped it off to the side. "You may have caught us off guard, but you're not getting away this time."

"You can count on it," Chun-Li reaffirmed as she took a stance next to her partner.

Juri did nothing but stare at the two over the cackling flames of her copy. In a sense, she was angered by her enemies' stubbornness, but in another sense, she was overjoyed. They were frightened, yes, but they were courageous. They were willing to keep fighting regardless of the inevitable outcome. Juri could respect that. She smiled and looked down at the dwindling flames before activating her eye. Whatever reactions the Chinese officer and Englishwoman gave, Juri ignored them.

Instead, she held her hand out above the violet flames and watched as they turned into vapors. They shot up into her hand and filled her body with a warm, invigorating feeling, for they were traces of her ki energy. Once the flames had vanished, only a purple sphere remained on the ground. It wobbled in the grass before leaping up into the palm of Juri's hand, as if on account of its own free will. She cradled it in her hands like a precious jewel before looking up at Cammy and Chun-Li.

"You know, it's always bothered me how you two always gang up on me," she said as she began to run her hands over the sphere, igniting it with sparks of energy. "I don't see how you have to do that. I'm just one person, ya know?" Juri held up the now-glimmering sphere and tilted her head. "Two against one is never fair…"

The Korean lazily dropped the sphere off to the side and watched as it shattered on a piece of concrete. Her hair picked up and blew back as a vortex of energy erupted from the remains of the sphere to form a larger, hazy purple sphere. In just a few seconds, another Juri took a stand next to the original. Cammy and Chun-Li's breath hitched upon looking at the darker, more sinister clone of someone who was already dark and sinister to begin with. If they weren't the courageous duo they were, they would have dropped everything and ran off with their tails between their legs.

In hindsight, they probably should have done just that.

"Now this," Juri started as she waved her hand nonchalantly, "is more like it."

"I think the odds are fair," Juri's clone snickered.

"Two on two…"

"Right girls?" they asked simultaneously.

What transpired next could only be described as complete and utter destruction. Juri, with the aid of her clone, proceeded to engage Cammy and Chun-Li in a fight that was weighed heavily in her favor. Bones were broken, blood was spilt, fabric was ripped and screams were loosed. The senseless brutality of the clone combined with Juri's cunning created a force that they couldn't even begin to counteract. After less than twenty seconds, the two enforcers were barely clinging to life. It was too quick, and much too ferocious than usual.

Cammy felt as if every bone in her body had been broken, and as much as she wanted to be far away from Juri and her new toy, she reconsidered moving. Every spasm of pain that made her squirm only served to rattle her groaning bones and inflame her aching and bruised skin. She kept herself were she was, prone and incapacitated with her face in the grass. Chun-Li suffered through the same terrible treatment, yet she had the misfortune of not being able to rest. Juri had released the scientist, who sat back with a traumatized expression, and used the handcuffs that had restrained him on the officer.

The officer slumped back as her head hung from her shoulders like a cosmetic student's disgraced project. The steel around her wrists stung her skin and kept her from lying down. She hissed with pain and twitched when Juri patted her cheek. She could hear the sound of a helicopter in the distance, and while she knew that she had failed her mission and her partner, at least the murderous wench who put her in such a deplorable state would be leaving. Ignoring the taste of copper in her mouth, Chun-Li groggily listened to Juri's giggling.

"Well, that was fun, even if it was quick." Juri leaned in and cupped the officer's chin in her hand. "Get better soon, 'kay? You'll need to be in peak condition for the next time we meet."

"…I hate you," Chun-Li whimpered.

"Love you too," Juri sarcastically retorted.

She kissed Chun-Li on the lips and held there for a few seconds before the officer squirmed away. Laughing, Juri dropped her chin and strode off to an awaiting helicopter and traumatized scientist. She barked at him and ordered him to get in before turning to her clone. Because of the sound of the rotors overhead, Juri held up five fingers to convey a message. Five minutes. Five minutes would be all the time the clone had before she was dispelled. She grinned wickedly and nodded.

As Juri and the scientist took off in the S.I.N. helicopter, the clone remained on the ground. She turned to Cammy's prone body and giggled maniacally to herself. The blonde had a small harness that allowed her to carry a small amount of armaments, primarily her pistol and accompanying ammunition. Perhaps there would be something interesting to play with there. She slinked over to the woman and straddled her, choosing to sit on her back.

"Still conscious?" she asked as she heard Cammy whimper. "Oh goodie! I've got about four minutes to play with you. Got an idea for a game?"

"…W-why are you doing this?" Chun-Li asked as she watched from afar.

"Entertainment, mostly," Juri's clone replied with a shrug.

Cammy's right hand slowly made its way to her thigh upon noticing her enemy was distracted. Her fingers brushed against the leather sheath for a combat knife that she had there. With relief and confidence spilling into her heart, she grabbed for her knife. However, it was not there. Her eyes widened as she felt the clone grab onto one of her pigtails and hold her knife under it.

"Excellent suggestion, kitten… Pin the pigtails on the officer! You can be my partner."

And with that, the clone began to cut.

* * *

Juri slept soundly that night, as she did every night the following week. She was content with the program Seth created fit with her skills and nature, and she was impressed by how well it worked. When she created a clone to train with, it felt like she improved twice as much as if she had trained alone. When she needed to rely on someone else, she simply made a copy to assist her. When a clone was dispelled, every memory and sensation that they experienced was imprinted upon Juri. In all her time of testing, she didn't come across a single problem.

Needless to say, she was very pleased.

The most cunning and destructive South Korean curled up under the covers of her bed and continued her restful sleep. After several mission successes, she felt like she deserved to nod off earlier and wake up later. With a clone of herself taking up the slack, she had more free time than usual. Seth thought it was rather creative of Juri to use his program in such a fashion, and as much as he did not like the idea of his _real_ star agent slacking off, he was too overjoyed that his program worked to put a stop to her lollygagging. Besides, the woman needed to refresh herself, and Seth figured he was rewarding her by leaving her alone, at least for the moment.

She dreamed that night. Only when everything was coming up roses did she dream. Usually she had simple recounts of the previous day, or, when she was troubled and in a bad mood, nightmares. Oddly enough, the woman preferred her nightmares over any dreams of debriefing. They fueled her drive to make a difference entirely by her hand, to strike her purpose. She drifted off and through the thin fabric of unconsciousness until she landed safe and sound within the envelope of her dream.

The woman blinked and looked around herself. In every direction was a large, everlasting white fog that seemed to stretch on to infinity. Confused, Juri glanced down at her feet and was alarmed to find that she was standing on thin air. She leapt back and collided with something soft and warm, which only further surprised her when she remembered that there was nothing around her. A pair of arms hooked around her and held her securely as a serene giggle was heard from behind. Juri turned her head to look at the one responsible for her capture and saw her clone with a peaceful smile on her face.

The twin spider gently returned Juri to her feet and presented herself to her once she turned around. On second glance, Juri saw that the clone did not have the dark and sinister shaded outfit that she usually had, but rather a completely different one. A white kimono with purple trim graced the clone's figure while a purple lotus flower was held between her right ear and raven-colored hair. She did not look like a killer, not like the other clone. Juri took a step back out of caution, as for some reason she felt rather anxious about the copy.

However, the copy made no attempts at further fueling Juri's anxiety. She bowed her head and performed a small curtsy before pointing behind the Korean, an action to which she obliged. Juri looked behind herself and saw a path of marble bricks rise up from the fog and snake through many pairs of magnificent stone columns. When she turned back to the kimono clone, she discovered that she had vanished. A quick glance around revealed that she was nowhere in sight.

"This is strange…"

Juri waited for a minute to see if the kimono clone would return, but soon her impatience got the better of her. She turned around and went down the path, occasionally looking about for something out of place in an already strange dream-world. As she walked, she noticed the stone columns on either side of her began to erode away. Cracks formed on some columns while moss and ivy snaked through breaks on others. Eventually she no longer saw columns and instead saw shapes, statues, and busts of strange characters she had never encountered before.

The air began to grow cold. Juri rubbed her arms and contemplated going back, but as she turned to look behind herself, she noticed a strange darkness following in her footsteps. The darkness seemed to consume everything that lay in its path, and while Juri was a fan of dark areas, she figured she shouldn't get caught in there. She bumped against a statue of a person and accidentally stubbed her toe. Irritated, she raised her fists and turned to knock it down when she finally saw the statues for what they were.

Every single statue that looked strange to her at first now made sense. They were statues of her, but the images were so marred and chipped that they were nearly unrecognizable. One statue was of her with her hair down and an arm extended. Juri figured the statue wanted to show off an object, but the hand had broken off and faded into existence. Another statue depicted the Korean hovering over another Juri, almost as if she had triumphed over herself. Every statue had some story to tell, but they were utterly incoherent.

"What the hell?"

Juri looked around herself and found that the area had changed. She was no longer on a straight path. Instead, she was at an intersection. Four statues were placed near the middle of the intersection, all of which looked clear, pristine, and identical to each other. Juri noticed that they were all looking at her, almost as if they were alive. Just like the others before them, the statures depicted her as she usually was. She stared them down for a moment before staring down one path.

The white fog disappeared and mutated into a black veil of darkness where she looked. Alarmed, Juri turned around and decided to go on the opposite path when the darkness appeared there as well. She doubled back to the intersection and discovered that the strange darkness had completely engulfed all four paths. Juri ignored the cold biting at her limbs as she scowled and slid into her fighting stance. Whatever was happening, she didn't like it.

Darkness continued to creep forward from all sides until all that was left were the statues and one solitary marble brick just large enough to keep Juri safe. The air began to get lighter. It became hard to breathe, and Juri's hands began to shake from the feeling. She coughed and fell to the marble, as it suddenly hurt to stand. It felt as if something was reaching out at her and choking her. The statues around her no longer looked like her. They were too distorted, too cruel and malicious to even hold a candle to the original. Their expressions were ones of sadistic merriment, and it terrified Juri.

Her vision began to blur as she struggled to breathe. She was in pain, and she had no idea what was going wrong. As her hands pressed against the marble, she widened her eyes with a sudden realization. She was in pain, choking, and struggling to breathe. Dreams weren't supposed to hurt! Her body began to gradually shut down despite her efforts to stand up and fight. A white kimono fluttered down from the sky as she barely managed to get back to her knees. Upon noticing the clothing, Juri pitifully reached forward.

With the last of her energy, she pulled her fingers in and launched a fist forward.

Suddenly the great weight that had been placed upon her ceased to be. Juri opened her eyes and looked up into the darkness of her room as air filled her lungs. She coughed, sputtered, and wheezed before her ki energy surged throughout her body to assist her in regaining her strength. Her vision came back to her as she regained the use of her arms and legs. While the darkness of her room was to be expected at night, the eerie glow of her Feng Shui Engine illuminated it enough to show her something she never wanted to find happening to her.

Straddling her body on the bed was none other than Juri's sadistically-shaded clone. She was gripping her face and hissing in pain which lead Juri to believe that the clone was to blame for her near suffocation. The realization hit the Korean like a ton of bricks, and she had no idea why this had happened. All she knew was that she was nearly killed by her clone. In hindsight, she wondered if that was considered suicide or assisted suicide.

Without delay, Juri thrashed about under the covers of her bed and managed to throw her clone off and to the side. She scurried out of the covers and hopped out of her bed to take a stand at the side. To her good-fortune, her clone hopped off and took a stand at the other side of the bed. Juri massaged her neck where she felt cold hands and glared over at her doppelganger. The damned wench grinned evilly at her in response.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Juri hissed.

"Getting rid of a loose end," the clone replied. "I don't very much like you, or your orders. Don't get me wrong, working with you is fun and all, but I don't appreciate you yanking the leash when I'm about to have the time of my life."

If the situation had been different, Juri would have remarked that not many people liked her and that she was rather proud of it. She held her tongue and dropped her hands to her side. Her clone was tired of being pushed around, and while Juri could sympathize with her, that was not reason enough to warrant an attempted murder. The clone had always been a great help whenever she had been summoned, but there were times when she took things much further than Juri would have liked. Some deaths and grievous injuries that the Korean knew were wrong to carry out were done instead by the clone, who had no qualms about doing so. It was not her ass on the line, after all.

Then it made sense: the clone was seeking to kill off the one who gave her direction simply because she also was the one who held her back. In the clone's deranged mind, it was futile to hold back an irrepressible force.

"You can't kill me," Juri shot back. "You kill me and you'll die with me!"

"You can't lie to yourself!" the clone snickered as her eyes gleamed. "I don't need you! As long as I have the eye, I'm perfectly fine!"

Juri grimaced and clenched her fists.

"I don't care what you think. You're getting back in my eye where you belong, and then I'm removing you from existence!"

The twin spiders glared at each other before transitioning into their stances. A fight was inevitable. In a sense, Juri found it funny that this would happen one of these days. She never liked being on the same page with someone else because she would be destined to fight pointlessly by trying to one-up them. Viper and Seth, although dangerous and manipulative, could hardly hold a candle to her. Instead, the only person who could do that was herself. After a tense few seconds, the two leapt at each other.

S.I.N.'s web wasn't big enough for two spiders.

* * *

A great and rhythmic knocking echoed throughout the corridors of the facility. Seth had the misfortune of hearing it at its full volume, given that it was coming from just behind his door. Because he was a synthetic human with a brimming yin-yang ball of limitless energy embedded in his abdomen, the need to eat, drink and sleep to regain lost energy was near-nonexistent. Trivial matters like the taste and texture of food and the feel of fine wine were lost amongst the countless plans, calculations and plots swimming around in his brilliant mind. Now, however, he silently wished that he had the capacity to sleep, if only to fall into a deep enough one to not hear the pounding on the door to his quarters.

Disgusted, the chrome man set aside his book and rose from his lavish seat. He straightened his suit and chiseled his expression into one of pure irritation, knowing full well that whoever had the audacity to annoy him at this hour would suffer worse than a steely gaze. He strode over to his door and opened it. To his great displeasure, the exasperated face of his greatest agent greeted him. To his great dismay, he discovered that Juri was standing outside his quarters in nothing but her nightwear.

Seth fumbled for the words to tell Juri off as he looked at her half-naked and bruised body. Juri shook her head and offered him her hand. In her palm was the purple sphere she used to hold her clone, and it was glowing dully. Sighing, Seth nodded his head and took the sphere without a word. It didn't take a genius to figure out that something had gone wrong and that Juri was not pleased about it. He resolved to close the door, but the voice of his agent stopped him.

"I finally understand," she said in a soft voice that was uncharacteristic of her.

"…What do you understand?" Seth asked.

"I finally understand what it's like to work with a person like me."

"Good. Juri, you should count yourself lucky that there are people like me willing to put up with you. Not everyone can stand-"

"What are you talking about?" Juri piped. "I didn't mean it like that. I worked with the most talented woman this past week, interacted with someone very interesting, and finished it off with the best fight in years!" She smiled and folded her arms across her chest. "The program worked like a charm. My clone just thought it could be the master and off me in the end."

"Ah, I see," Seth muttered.

"Keep an eye on that program and tweak it some more, because you know what, Seth? I like it." She turned and began to walk down the corridors of the dark facility. "See ya tomorrow!"

Seth looked after her for a moment with an incredulous expression before he shrugged and took the sphere back into his room. Upon hearing the click of a lock sliding into place, Juri's smile faded and she slouched over. She held her side as she walked back to her quarters, occasionally hissing with pain.

"…I-I don't know my own strength… Ow, ow, ow…"

* * *

**Author's Note: **If you're going to review, sign in to do it. If you'd rather perform a guest review, piss off. Yes, this is supposed to be offensive.


	4. Teleportation

**Disclaimer: **All games and characters within them belong to their respective companies.

* * *

"You are your own worst enemy."

Juri smiled at this.

"True, but there's nothing more satisfying than overcoming yourself. Breaking your own limits, exceeding your own expectations… There's a personal joy in that."

"Really, Juri?" Viper said, her head tilted in knowing. "Never would have figured you to be a deep thinker."

"Hohoho," Juri laughed, "there's a lot that you don't know about me."

"And for that, I'm glad."

A week after the incident with the clone, Juri had completely recovered from her savage fight. She swore that the sides of her body looked as if someone had spilled purple and orange paint on them. It pained her to wear more clothing to cover her bruises, but she admitted that she never had the drive to wear less in the first place unless she was making a statement. Wandering the corridors of the facility in her nightwear would go unappreciated for that matter, so why bother? She went easy on her body and gave it the proper care that it deserved as Seth and the others did the same.

Like Viper said, one's worst enemy tended to be themselves. Leave it to a copy of herself to almost kill her, but, at the same time, put Juri's skills to the test. She enjoyed the fight with her clone because it was not like anything else she had experienced before. Her clone was infuriated and fought with demented purpose, and she was fully prepared to kill her original. It was a true fight to the death, and Juri had been excited during it all. She enjoyed the fight- despite the suddenness of it all- and never once thought of the possible outcomes.

In the end, the best woman won. Juri loved the potential of the shadow clone program too much to write it off as a failure. On one hand, she realized that her clone was without a conscious and was much more violent than she was, but on the other hand, Juri could not blame the clone for her attempted murder. She would have done the same if given the chance. After giving the defeated clone back to Seth in orb form, Juri licked her wounds for the week and eagerly awaited the next program.

When it finally came, she was pleasantly surprised.

"Teleportation! The power to instantly go where you want!" Juri exclaimed. She looked to Viper and highlighted her left eye between her fingers. "That's much better than something like flying, especially if it's with some weird jet boots."

"But Juri, flying is fun," Viper said. "Imagine drifting about, flying high above the clouds, leaving the troubles of the ground behind. It's fun to fly, really. Lauren would throw a fit if she ever found out th-"

"You don't fly for fun, you run away like a winged rat," Juri interjected. "I don't travel to see the sights. Scenery doesn't fight back, ya know."

"Well, you're missing out then."

A quick glance at Viper's clipboard provided the Korean with the information she desired. Teleportation was known as the transfer of matter, be it human or item, from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. To Juri, this was near impossible to accomplish without some kind of special power or technology, and even then it seemed like a pipe dream. However, Juri's boss did not see it that way. Seth described it as the projection of consciousness, internal energy, and soul to a set location which would then forcibly yet painlessly reconstruct the user once they "arrived". Because one wills it, it will happen.

The data for the teleportation program was personally supplied by Seth, who was capable of teleportation himself. Juri had seen him teleport a few times before, but it was always over a short distance, a means to close the distance between him and a potential threat. The data for this had been gathered from Dhalsim, an Indian yoga master who, for some reason, was capable of teleportation and breathing fire. With his data, Seth was able to increase his potential and strengthen his moveset, and that in turn led to his sharing the data by putting it to use in Juri' Feng Shui Engine.

Juri stifled a sardonic giggle at the thought of her boss sharing privileged information with her. Altruism and philanthropy were as foreign to Seth as compassion was to a psychopath. It wasn't like the synthetic man to share anything that could come back to bite him. He kept things from those under him because he wanted to keep them in the dark. He who was ignorant was powerless, he believed. It was this reason and this reason alone that he eventually relented and allowed the scientists to copy some of his data to the Feng Shui Engine.

After all, if he was to get a full and in-depth report on the programs he designed, it would do no good to stunt their power and potential, even if they were being handed off to Juri.

"Alright," Viper said as she wielded her pen, "first tell me how you feel right now."

"Eh, the usual," Juri replied with a shrug.

"What about when you walked over here from the engine room?"

"Hmm… Come to think of it, I got the feeling that my senses were a little sharper."

Viper lowered her brow as she began to write on her clipboard.

"How so?"

"You know that psychology thing, uh, out of sight, out of mind?" Viper nodded. "Babies think that if they can't see something, it doesn't exist. We know better now, of course. So now if a guy turns a corner, we know he's gonna be behind the wall when we look for him."

"So now you know where he is?"

"Yeah… Only I _know_ exactly where he is," Juri affirmed. "Maybe sharpened senses isn't the word for it. Sixth sense, maybe?"

"I wouldn't know," Viper said.

Of course the agent wouldn't know. She was not a fighter or a psychic. She was just a normal woman who had a battlesuit that let her do extraordinary things. She could lethally shock a living person until their heart stopped, she could perform flaming kicks, and she could create shockwaves with a charged-up knuckle strike. With technology at her side, she could do more than an ordinary person could. But she could not utilize ki energy, and in that sense, she did not have the means to strengthen her senses.

Besides, she wasn't the one testing the programs and suffering from their drawbacks.

"Well, why don't we get down to it?" Viper inquired. "The only way to know how something works is to test it out."

If there was one thing Juri could respect about Viper, it would be her professionalism. The woman knew what was important now and later, and she chose not to get bogged down in silly activities or subject herself to vices other than the occasional cigarette. While this made the agent boring to the Korean, it also made her responsible and reliable. Her seriousness when it came to situations was invaluable, and she proved time and time again that she had the skills necessary to complete her missions. Juri was more of the same, although she chose to entertain herself more often than not.

The manner in which she switched from professionalism to nonchalance was abrupt. One minute she would be completely focused on her work and the next she would be taking small digs at other workers. Juri did not mind it due to her own behavior. At times she herself would switch from a playful attitude to a more serious and malicious one. She rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms with a yawn before mumbling in acknowledgement. While she was rightly cautious, her enthusiasm for another program overrode any doubt she had.

"Try teleporting over there," Viper said as she pointed to the far wall of the testing room.

Juri went through the motions to activate her eye. Exhaling slowly once again, she focused on her inner power and made it the catalyst in the Feng Shui Engine's activation. She could feel the warmth spread throughout her body as her ki rushed into her veins. No matter how many times she performed this activation, whether in battle or out of boredom, it never got old for her. Just using it was enough to excite her and prepare her for a dizzying array of attacks.

As soon as she could see the glow of her eye and the orange interface, she lifted her hand to the far wall and concentrated. A notification appeared in her interface, one that was attached to the wall. On it she could see how far away it was from her as well as the energy required to teleport over there. As expected, the energy requirement was laughably low. Short distances would hardly affect the user, but when traversing large distances like across a city or to another country, the energy required would be substantially greater.

That was a small problem for a woman who had a device capable of limitless power.

Juri focused on a concrete idea of her energy moving to the wall with her body following instantaneously. She imagined herself appearing where she wanted and pushed her body to respond. Her eye shrieked to her request and before the Korean knew what had happened, the wall was suddenly much, much closer. A brief sensation of falling forced her to reach out and stumble when she touched down. To make teleportation easier and to prevent the unlikely event of getting stuck in a solid object, the user would appear a few inches above their target.

"Woah! That was quick," Juri said as she quickly righted herself. She patted the wall in front of her before turning to Viper. "See anything weird?"

"Besides you, nothing," Viper replied with a shake of her head. "You flashed just briefly before and after you teleported. It's disorientating, but I'd be willing to bet you jumping all over the place is going to be much worse. What about you? Did you see a notification pop up before you teleported?"

"Yeah, just something about distance and power requirement or something."

"See? Technology's great when it can tell you easily missed stuff like that."

"I never said it wasn't," Juri huffed. She turned around and looked to the opposite wall. "Take two."

This time, Juri was prepared for the lurch of teleportation. She focused on willing herself over to the wall, disappeared, and then reappeared right in front of it. She touched down on the floor and spread her legs and arms in a linebacker's stance. Stable and safe. As long as she became accustomed to the strange feeling of being placed in a location far away and got over the initial feel of 'exiting' from her teleportation, she would be fine. Juri chuckled to herself before glancing over her shoulder.

In the blink of the eye, she teleported back in her original position near Viper.

"Gimmie your clipboard," she said.

"What for?" Viper replied as she gave the item up.

"Testing! That's why we're here, aren't we?"

Before Viper could express her concerns, Juri flashed and disappeared. So did the clipboard in her hands. At the far end of the room the Korean waved the clipboard about. Because of the user's teleportation gift, objects that she either came into contact with or channeled energy through would be carried with her when she 'jumped'. Thinking of it now, Viper cursed herself for her previous ignorance. If the Feng Shui Engine did not allow objects to be carried with it, Juri would have reappeared in one corner while her clothes fell to the ground in another. Shaking her head at that thought, Viper held out her hand.

A shriek and a flash later, the clipboard was placed back in her hands.

"Cool. Alright, gimmie a minute," Juri said.

She stepped back and folded her arms as she began to focus. An idea had surfaced, and Juri would be too dense to not follow through on it. She mentally searched the facility for something of interest before it hit her. To further test the distance her program could work over, she needed a location, but more than that, she needed a reason and motivation. A playful grin washed over her before she snapped her fingers and disappeared.

Viper didn't like that grin, nor did anyone else. Like a cat when flicking its tail, Juri's grins told everyone that she was up to no good. One would have to be extremely fortunate to witness a pure, genuine grin with no ulterior meaning behind it. The fact that the Korean had just up and left to pursue some hidden goal did not sit well with Viper as she was using the program to do so. However, this was not a big surprise given that Juri had used the previous two programs to fulfill her own desires and torment the agent.

Juri returned to the room in a flash, and she did not return empty-handed. In her hands was a large-sized red bra fit for someone with an ample chest, and on her face was the proudest smile she could ever hope to muster. The Korean fumbled with the bra before she held it close to her chest. She spread the material out over her breastplate and hummed a small tune, blissfully aware of an aghast Crimson Viper in front of her. Given the small tag that read 'Maya' on one of the straps, the agent had every reason to be bothered.

"Did you buy this before or after the boob job?" Juri asked innocently.

Viper snatched the red bra away from Juri and held it close to her chest.

"What the- Do you even realize what you've just done?" Viper hissed.

"Yeah!" Juri exclaimed. "I went through three stories, a locked door, and a locked wardrobe. Pretty spiffy, if I say so myself."

If the weight of violation of personal space and property couldn't faze Juri, Viper figured nothing else she had to say next would either. She wadded up her bra and tucked it away in a pocket of her jacket before turning on her heel in a huff. She tucked her clipboard underneath her arm and walked off. It wasn't until Juri calmed down from her bout of giggles did she notice Viper was leaving the room. She wiped a tear from her eye and called out to the woman.

"Woah, wait a minute, where you goin'? What about my mission?"

"There is no mission!" Viper shouted. "And I've had enough of you for one day!"

"But it's only the morning!"

Viper shot Juri the most sour look imaginable over her shoulder. Not even years of acting practice could replicate anything close to it. There was complete and utter contempt, embarrassment, and exasperation all wrapped up into one. Juri felt a great joy at seeing all three, but also a great sadness. She would probably never see a look like that again… unless she found more incriminating articles of clothing. Viper stormed out of the testing room, leaving Juri all alone to herself.

"No missions," she sighed. "Oh well, if no fun is laid out for me, I have no choice than to find some on my own."

At this reasoning, Juri grinned. She thought back on areas and locations that she had been to in the past. With teleportation at her fingertips, she had more freedom to go wherever she wanted and not have to deal with airports or private transportation. Just the thought of beating the rush hour traffic and not having to muscle her way through throngs of people filled her heart with glee. While she was tempted to fly off the handle and go wherever she pleased, she decided to use her teleportation in moderation, and only for testing. It was a new program, and if it was like the previous two, it was bound to be prone to malfunctions.

Perhaps an impromptu vacation would be a good form of testing. Asia beckoned as it filled Juri's mind with images of rich pastures, ancient architecture, and frantic nightlife action. Europe and its quant little cities called out to her, begging her to come and see the canals of Venice, the lights of Paris, and the fields of England. If she wanted to kick back and relax, a visit to one of the Siesta Keys beaches would be more than enough. If she wanted to fight for her life and possibly net herself a dingo pelt, Australia was the place to go. Plus, she enjoyed the stereotypes of the people there and was curious to see if they were real or not.

Australia, however, was foreign to Juri, and not because she had never been there. She was an observant fighter who kept track of where worthy opponents lived, purely for the sake of tracking them down for rematches, should she decide that she wanted more fun. She could always just walk around in Sydney and watch for the toughest ocker, but she figured she would sooner fight the police than someone who genuinely wanted a fight. Instead of taking a gamble in an alien location, the better choice would be to go to a familiar country with a familiar opponent. England and China- and their respective heroes- were fantastic choices once again, but Juri relented.

After the flogging Cammy and Chun-Li had experienced a few weeks ago, they would not be in the best condition to put up a fight. As much as Juri wanted to see how Cammy was handling her new haircut, she decided to leave things as they were, at least for now. She paced about the room and thought about another person she could fight, someone who had troubled her in the past and tested her strength. Someone who just so happened to be close to the operative and officer... Her eyes widened when she remembered just such a person.

If her memory served her right, this person would be in San Francisco, California. She concentrated on an image of the city- the Golden Gate Bridge- and its place on Earth before a blip appeared in her vision. Apparently it would require an extraordinary amount of energy to get over there, and then there was the possibility that the teleportation program would deposit her in the strait or 245 feet above it. Juri pushed that aside. She knew what she was doing.

She focused her energy and gradually fanned her inner flames until she could feel the warmth radiate from her body. Her sinister purple energy spiraled around her like a snake, twisting and convulsing with every breath she took. After another deep breath, she put the program to work. With a flash and a shriek from her eye, she was gone.

* * *

William F. Guile was not having a good day. Bad enough that the recent cadets had been robbed of flight training for the week because of a mechanic's terrible repairs, but to be blamed for it was something else. As a Major in the United States Airforce, Guile was used to having the blame come back around and bite him in the ass. If the man below him failed to do his job, it was because he had failed to teach and instruct him. However, the mechanic was not a part of the unit Guile had been watching over. In fact, he belonged to another but had been called in to service Guile's planes, thus giving his superiors every reason to sneer in his direction.

The soldier had not been getting as much sleep as he wanted to, his Shadaloo hunting had continued to turn up nothing for him, and the recent events that had befallen Cammy and Chun-Li were heavy on his mind. But the straw that broke the camel's back for him on this day was not any of the three but rather a run-in with his brother-in-law. Ken Masters was up there with Bison on Guile's list of people he did not want to meet again. The two managed a bit of small-talk before full-on arguing over the most trivial of problems and grievances. Eventually they went their separate ways, Ken bemoaning his irritable brother-in-law and Guile cursing Ken's easygoing and immature behavior.

When the man returned home, he was looking forward to a few hours all to himself. He parked his car in the driveway of his suburban house and dragged his feet to the front door. While he wanted to move out to a bigger home, both Julia, his wife, and Amy, his daughter, loved suburban living too much to leave. Amy loved the shopping and areas around the house while Julia enjoyed the fact that her sister Eliza lived with Ken nearby within a twenty-minute drive. And, as much as he hated to admit it, Guile enjoyed the community cookouts every now and then, even if Ken had to come down and ruin everything.

Guile let himself into his home and immediately dropped his keys, coat, and briefcase on the entryway table. He needed to wind down, and the couch looked like the best place to go. It was dark outside and quiet inside. Julia had left to catch up with Eliza for the week while Amy was out with her boyfriend, a good kid who had managed to avoid Guile's wrath so far. That said, the Major had the house all to himself for the evening. Before he could collapse onto the couch, he caught a strange shadow in the corner of his eye.

He recoiled at the sudden flash of purple before growling.

"Ahaha… Down boy," said the shadow.

Flicking a nearby light switch, Guile illuminated the shadow. Perched on the banister of a staircase was the woman he had fought in the mountains, the one and only Juri Han. She lazily checked her fingernails as her legs hung over the banister, her composure completely nonchalant. Trespassing, for her, wasn't enough to warrant being concerned over. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before stretching. She peered down at Guile and smiled.

"How ya doing?" she asked. "Been a long time, soldier. You don't look too bad."

Juri expected a retort of some kind. The dainty officer and her kitten loved to fight with words too, and beating them on the verbal front was too tempting for the Korean to ignore. To her surprise, the Major wasn't one with words. The man dashed forward and grabbed onto one of her legs. Before he could pull down, the woman disappeared. Guile's hands slipped down to his sides as he blinked twice, startled by the loss of a leg in his grasp.

A flash of light in the corner of his vision distracted him just enough for Juri to kick him into the staircase. Guile grunted and pushed off from the stairs, his head throbbing from the surprise attack. Turning around, he quickly assessed Juri's arrogant stance, completely open to an attack, before reacting accordingly. He brought his fist up and jabbed it into the woman's ribs. She disappeared again with a chuckle instead of sliding out of the way. Before Guile could turn around, Juri reached around him from behind and grabbed his arms in an armlock.

"Come on family man, step it up," she cooed into his ear. "Make me smile again."

She struggled to not laugh as the soldier thrashed about in her grip. What a surprise it was to a man like him to know that not only could Juri bring him to his knees in a fight, she could hold him down without much effort. It reminded Guile of occasional spars with Chun-Li when his temper flared. The woman used her agility to get behind the man and then relied on her strength to subdue him. But the officer was large and muscular while Juri was lithe. It had to be the eye's doing.

Guile shot his head back and smashed it against Juri's forehead. He could feel the clunk of bone reverberate throughout his skull, and despite the pain that flowed, he knew he had finally struck her. Juri released the soldier and recoiled back. Before she could even rub her head, she caught Guile's fist against her cheek. She stumbled against the banister and groaned at her arrogance. She had been careless in starting her fight, and unless she took the fight seriously, the soldier would probably be able to subdue her.

Juri straightened up and glowered at the man. The living room of his home was not the best place to fight, even if she enjoyed tight spaces. With the couches, tables, plants and lights in the way, she was more likely to stub her toes than to land a kick. As such, she decided to bring the fight to a new location. She raised her leg and kicked out in a feint to make Guile block low before rising up and kicking him straight in the ribs with such force that she swore she could hear something shift inside him.

It couldn't be helped that Guile just so happened to be in the perfect position to fly through the glass of the back porch's sliding door. Shards rained down onto the wooden deck as a thunderous clash echoed throughout the area. Guile careened off of the deck and down a small flight of stairs to the grass below with a mighty thump. He could feel moisture forming at his back as well as a stinging sensation in the back of his shoulder. Gritting his teeth from the pain, he could notice Juri's footsteps steadily approaching.

"Get up," she shouted. "Come on goddammit! Is this the best a professional sold-"

A blast of light energy slammed into her stomach and knocked her off her feet. In her small monologue Guile had taken the opportunity to unleash his inner power, something Juri had never witnessed before. With a quick motion of his arms he had created a sonic boom, and to his good fortune, it had connected. Juri disappeared back into the house to tumble over herself. When she finally stopped rolling, she glared up at Guile with a malicious sneer. Here was the excitement she was seeking.

She flashed and disappeared before Guile's eyes again before reappearing at his flank. This time the soldier was prepared for one of her disappearing acts and reacted accordingly with a counter-jab.

"What the hell kind of tricks are those?" he barked as his fist grazed Juri's side.

"You like them?" Juri asked before she kicked Guile in the legs. "New features. Only the best for Han's baby girl!"

The two fought tooth and nail in the backyard of Guile's family home. Kicks landed against limbs as fists pounded into ribs and cheeks. Juri, with her new teleportation power, managed to avoid being struck more than she used to without it while the soldier got the short end of the stick. Try as he might, he was continuously put on the defensive by the Korean's new power. Attacks that were likely to hit were met with thin air as she kept teleporting away only to come back with a surprise counterattack. If it wasn't for the man's endurance, he would have been knocked unconscious minutes ago.

Juri grumbled as she dodged another punch. While she was impressed by Guile's inner power, she was ultimately disappointed with his performance. He hadn't even come close to making her smile. It seemed to her that the programs that she used- and will use in the future- took most of the fun out of her fights. They were impressive to use, but they were not satisfying if she constantly had the upper hand. In fact, for her to get any kicks out of fights, she decided she would have to stretch them out or give herself some kind of handicap.

She clicked her tongue and teleported behind Guile. Like an old dog that couldn't move well again, the soldier had to be put down. He was boring to the Korean, and unlike the officer and her kitten, he had not offered any reason to continue a 'relationship'. This could not stand. With a simple command, she willed her eye to activate to its fullest potential and give her the power she desired to end the fight then and there. She waited for the sinister glove of violet ki to wrap around her hand before pulling back.

Suddenly, a few red lines of text splashed into her vision. Many of them were corrupted and marred so badly that they were illegible. Among the lines of text were a few symbols she could understand, ones that told of ki circulation troubles, programming problems, and bad bugs. It didn't matter what they were to Juri; they were all critical errors. A sharp pain rocked through her head and forced her to drop her attack and hold herself. Through her torment she could see one line of text clearly enough.

"I-I-Incompatible?" She lowered her hands and hissed. "Dammit Seth, you messed-"

She trailed off when she looked over at Guile. In the time that she spent writhing, the man had composed himself just enough to capitalize on the situation. He launched forward with a devastating haymaker as Juri's vision turned to white, her eye shrieking. She felt the ground leave her as she was knocked off her feet to the concrete below. Her head throbbed at the collision. She grumbled to herself and shook her head before noticing something glaring.

Why was there concrete in Guile's backyard? It wasn't there before!

It was then that a boot came down on her exposed midriff and pinned her down, robbing her of any further questioning. Juri opened her eyes and looked up to stare down the barrel of a shotgun. Calloused hands gripped the stock and slider, a finger hovering over the trigger. As the Korean's vision began to clear, she saw more than just the shotgun. A man in red military fatigues stood over her, but not the USAF Major from before. He was nowhere to be seen.

The man above her wore a brown helmet that rested just on the bridge of his nose. If Juri had been standing, she would have laughed at the style, for the man had effectively jammed his helmet over his eyes. Beneath the helmet was a large, mad grin. Two grenades were fastened to a bandolier while numerous ammo pouches hugged his hips. A trench shovel was attached to his waist, and it was covered with fresh blood. Juri watched a few drops of blood fall in silent fear before looking back up at the man who held her at gunpoint. He looked like a soldier, but not like any the Korean had ever seen before.

"What's the matter hippie," he cackled. "Hair get in your eyes?"

And with that, the man brought his shotgun up and prepared to fire. Before he could do anything further, however, a booming voice from behind stopped him.

"Soldier! Stop!"

The soldier lowered his weapon and took his boot off of Juri's stomach, allowing her to scuttle away on her back. Another man came up behind the soldier, and he looked more ridiculous than him. Large, fat, bald, wearing a flak jacket over a red shirt and carrying a massive minigun, the new man rounded on the other. He looked like an eastern European of sorts, a Russian. This was reinforced by his accent and his short, broken sentences when he opened up his mouth again.

"Do not shoot! Is not BLU! Is purple!" He pointed at Juri with his free hand. "Tiny baby lady is friend!"

Juri wasn't sure whether or not she was supposed to be offended by the fat man's assistance and description. Instead, she took the opportunity to stand up and check her surroundings. The air was dank with moisture as the smell of blood filled her nostrils. Judging by the two pipes nearby that were large enough to fit a truck through, Juri figured she was in a sewer of sorts. The water flowed slowly through the area and lapped against the corner junction the three were on.

Whirling was heard nearby, and when Juri turned her head to investigate, she saw the corpse of an unfortunate man in blue overalls slumped against a wall. The man had on a yellow hardhat, worker's goggles, and one solitary rubber glove. Bits of mangled, bloodied machinery were littered around him, painted blue just like his uniform. One machine that stole Juri's attention was a small rotating contraption that was emitting a bright blue light. She heard a faint mechanical whistle from the contraption and watched it whirl around for a moment longer before looking back at the men in red.

"Back off, _comrade_," the soldier growled. "That rifle-droppin' coward's deceiving you with a voluptuous disguise! This is war, and I will not toler-" He cut himself off and remained silent for two seconds before inquiring, "What did you just say?"

The soldier raised his helmet up and looked at Juri. He held an incredulous stare with her before anger flashed in his eyes. He jabbed a finger at her, consequently dropping his helmet back over his eyes.

"What in god's name is a _woman_ doing on _my_ battlefield? This is a _man's_ war! If you know what's good for you, you will return to your kitchen! That's an order, magg-"

Juri reached up and slapped the finger away before pounding on the man's helmet. He groaned and held his head as the fat man stepped closer, his expression grim. However, when Juri rounded on him with a clenched fist, the man took a step back and held his minigun possessively.

"Alright, do not hurt Heavy, tiny lady," the fat man said as he affectionately patted his gun. He raised his eyebrows and turned to the soldier. "Soldier is sorry. Right?"

"Sorry? The only one who's going to be sorry is this nip!" The man raised his shotgun again. "So, the land of the rising sun's sending pansy ladies to do their fighting now, are they?"

"Soldier is sorry!" the "Heavy" roared, pounding on the man's helmet with his meaty fist. "Besides, war is over. We are friends, da?" To Juri, he asked, "Da?"

"What the hell is going on?" Juri shouted. She twirled around once and gestured about. "Where the hell am I?"

The "Soldier" grumbled and leaned forward.

"You're in Teufort, _Sally_. And you're in the sewers of RED base!"

"Is best base!" the Heavy piped in with a grin.

"Right, right. Anyway, with you coming out of that teleporter there," the Soldier pointed to the blue whirling contraption, "I have every reason to suspect BLU involvement."

"Look here, nutjob, I just got here," Juri hissed. "I don't know what's going on, and I don't care anymore. I just wanna get back to where I was before!"

The two men looked at Juri, then to each other. She could only guess at what they were thinking. Given the dead man in blue and the killer in red as well as the antipathy between this RED and BLU group, wherever the Korean was now, it was not safe. She craned her neck to listen towards a sewer pipe and could hear the firing of bullets off in the distance. Something exploded nearby, prompting a young man to scream out for a medic. Disturbingly enough, the two men in the sewer seemed to notice but did not care.

Just what kind of place did she get teleported into? She accepted the fact that her teleportation program was now faulty, but what she feared were further complications. She feared that she would not be able to get back to S.I.N. until her eye was fixed up, and to do that, she could either rely on the now-faulty program to teleport her to the facility or she could reach up and perform amateur eye surgery. But no matter the danger, Juri would never again entertain that latter idea.

Ultimately, she decided to try to use the eye again to get herself out, but it seemed that the men in front of her had other plans.

"Private Heavy! Orders have changed!" Soldier barked. "We are to escort the civilian back to base. No doubt the administrator planned for this."

"New objective?" Heavy questioned. "No more grabbing tiny briefcase?"

"Precisely!"

And with that, the two turned to Juri and steadily advanced on her. She balled her hands up into fists again and sank back into a fighting stance, now certain that they weren't about to help her anytime soon. Not that they would probably help anyway. Through the break between the fat man and the insane soldier, Juri looked down the sewer tunnel behind them. If she could just slip past, she would be able to teleport away without being harassed.

Before she could put her plan into action, something came around the corner of the tunnel and into plain sight. A man- or woman- of sorts wearing a blue fire retardant suit sloshed their way into the area with a primed flamethrower cradled in their rubber hands. Juri stared at the creature, unable to see a thing behind the gasmask it wore. What was worse was that the… thing was wearing a beanie hat, a taped-on mustache and monocle, and yellow sunglasses. The pyromaniac gave a muffled war cry and charged forward at the Soldier and Heavy, who turned around in surprise. They reached for their weapons, but it was far too late for them.

Soon, the Korean's vision became obscured by all-consuming fire. Her left eye shrieked again, but it was drowned out by the screams of the men in front of her. She brought her arms up to shield her face from the propane nightmare, but no flames licked her skin. Peeking through her arms, she looked out at what she expected to be two flaming corpses. Instead, two deathly pale men lumbered towards her, their arms outstretched.

Still quite agitated, Juri kicked the two men back to the street below. Their bones cracked upon impact as their blood splattered onto the pavement. One of the men's heads fell clean off his shoulders with a sickening, bubbling squish. She took a step back to get away from the scene, but she backed up into a deserted car. The still alive 'corpse' shuffled back onto its feet and moaned before falling over again.

The sewers of a mercenary base were no more. Instead, Juri found herself in a large intersection filled with destroyed cars, buses, broken barricades and dead and decaying bodies. Fires burned in the night, filling buildings in the distance as the stench of death filled the air. Shops and restaurants littered the sides of the intersection, all of which had Chinese lettering above them. Looking up, Juri could see a pedestrian bridge filled with more bodies, only unlike the ones in the street, these were moving.

One of the bodies stumbled over the railing and fell right on top of the second corpse. Juri widened her eyes as both bodies stood up and looked her way. Shuffling movements, moaning, disgusting appearance, and a strange hostility towards anything alive. Without a doubt, these things were zombies. Juri had heard of such creatures back when she was a teenager. She expressed an interest in the supernatural and grotesque, and zombies easily secured a place in her memories. If these zombies were anything like the modern renditions, one bite or swipe would be fatal.

As the two zombies were joined by others and began to shuffle towards her, Juri tried to force her eye to teleport her anywhere else. Zombies were not real. They couldn't be real! They did not exist in her world, so unless S.I.N. had somehow let a zombie virus fly under the radar, this was not the same world as Juri remembered it. She chuckled sadly to herself. The teleportation program was now proving to be more trouble than it was worth, and if she wasn't careful, it would be her undoing. Unfortunately, the eye was not in the complying mood at the moment, so that left Juri with the decision to either wait until the eye warped her somewhere else or sit back and let the zombies have their way with her.

Logically, she chose to do the former while preventing the later.

One zombie got close enough to swipe at her. Juri ducked under the lazy swipe and twisted around to bring an elbow up and into the side of the abomination's head. The effect was instantaneous. The zombie's head popped like a balloon with a sickening splatter, spraying blood and grey matter up and away. While Juri was not a big fan of gore, there was something strangely satisfying about the kill. She repeated the action on another zombie who tried to grab her, effectively bashing its fragile skull in.

After the next dozen zombies, she decided she was actually having fun in this zombie apocalypse. The enemies kept coming, all in different clothes and carrying different objects. Juri bashed in an accountant's head, ruined an infected firefighter's face with a fire extinguisher, and made a police officer regret bringing a golf club. She felt that she was being rewarded for this behavior, somehow, as if something was adding points to every kill she made. Soon she became surrounded by a good-sized crowd, but she didn't notice the futility of her situation until one zombie grabbed onto her arm.

Startled, Juri grappled with the creature in an attempt to push it away. She could see the rotten flesh on its face part and move as it opened up its mouth. Putrid acid of some sort dribbled down its chin as it snapped at Juri, gnashing its rotten teeth. Something hit the back of her leg and made her stumble forward, inadvertently pushing her closer to the offending zombie. Before the creature could bite into her neck, a bolt flew through the air and perforated its head from ear to ear.

Juri threw the zombie down to the ground and looked for the one responsible. A curvy woman in a signature red jacket and black pants shoved a zombie aside with the butt of her crossbow before barreling through. She flashed Juri a smile and a thumbs-up as she passed.

"Still working on those time bonuses. Keep it up!"

"W-wait what?" Juri cried.

But there was no time to stop and hold a decent conversation. More zombies approached, each one more troublesome than the last. One of them, a zombie in armor, had a gun, and it fired it off like a drunken fool on too many hallucinogens. Juri managed to duck under the gunfire and break its firing arm. Soon things took a turn for the worse. The zombie violently convulsed at the trauma before its armor slid off to reveal rapidly rotting and pulsating flesh.

With a gruesome roar, the zombie 'shed' its skin and revealed bare muscle. Eyes fell out from their sockets as facial features soon ceased to be recognizable. A gaping maw filled with razor-sharp teeth glinted in the dim lighting of the neon signs up above. Juri backed away when it reared its ugly head in her direction. She hadn't expected this, and now that she was staring living gore in the face, the urge to run was taking hold. She turned on her heel and dashed away to give herself some room, but she didn't get too far. As the gored creature lurched towards the Korean with a jaw wide open, her eye shrieked once again.

She felt a rush of energy surge through her veins for a brief moment before her body collided with a rough surface. Stars burst into her vision as a great pain flashed across her face and sides. She writhed for a moment, unsure of where she was. Part of her expected the bloodied creature to be on top of her, pressing her face into the pavement before it tried to take a chunk out of her neck, but the other part was unsure. The only blood that she could smell was her own as it trickled down from her nose, and she did not collide with any pavement. She rubbed her temples and looked up.

Just as her vision cleared, a book fell directly on her face.

Juri shuddered at the pain and ripped the book off. She made a move to throw it as hard as she could when she noticed she was somewhere completely different. The air was musty, dusty, and stuffy. A strong and crisp smell wafted throughout it. Wood flooring replaced bloody pavement. Many small and pristine oil lamps were hanging up around her, all attached to bookcases. Juri blinked twice and rubbed her eyes when she looked up.

What she expected to be simple bookcases were just that, but she was unprepared for their size and majesty. They were massive. So massive, in fact, that she couldn't see where they ended. The ceiling, if there was one, was too high up to be seen. It was as if the bookcases disappeared into the darkness above. Juri absentmindedly brushed a bit of gore off of her trousers as she continued to stare. She contemplating climbing up there herself to see if there really was a ceiling, but her curiosity would have to wait.

With no zombies around, she realized her eye had spat her out in a different location again. It wasn't willing to cooperate just yet, but Juri knew that if she willed herself to return to S.I.N.'s facility, eventually the teleportation program would pick up on her desire and send her back. When that happened, she would grab Seth and demand the program was to be taken out immediately. She didn't want to stumble across another insane world, and she didn't want to get stuck in a bad situation that she had no way of surmounting, like a zombie apocalypse. All she had to do now was survive.

She sighed and moved down the bookcases until her foot hit a small stack of books on the floor. She cried out in pain and dropped her book to cradle her foot. Whoever this library belonged to, they had more books than they knew what to do with. There were many books scattered around in neat little piles, all organized according to size, color, or title. Juri, in a small fit of anger, kicked over the stack she had hit her foot on. The sound of falling books echoed throughout the endless library, but by the time Juri noticed the effect, it was already too late.

"…What was that?"

Juri's breath hitched when she heard the feminine voice. It sounded close, as if the speaker was just behind the bookcase. The sound of pages being flipped filled the air before falling silent. Juri pressed herself against the bookcases and cautiously made her way forward as the unknown person's voice was joined by another.

"Hmm? Did you hear something, Mistress?" asked a playful-sounding woman.

"…Yes, yes I did." A book closed with an audible 'whumph'. A string of coughs arose from the action before the monotone voice was heard again. "I heard a rat. Please investigate."

"Yes, Mistress."

Juri continued to advance at a cautious pace. Now that she was no longer alone, she had every reason to be careful. Who knew what kind of place this really was, and who knew what type of people owned it? Light filtered through the cracks between books as well as the openings in the bookcases. The Korean matched her steps with the sounds of heels on floorboards nearby as she approached an intersection. If the staff of this library was on alert, it would be high time before they calmed down. Perhaps it would be better to address them.

Then again, with the way things were going for the Korean, perhaps it wouldn't.

Stopping at the intersection, Juri waited for the sound of heels to get closer. She crouched down to pick up a book before promptly tossing it high over the intersection and into the far aisle. The book slammed down with a resounding thud. A young woman slid into view and stared down the aisle where Juri threw the book. Wearing a black dress with white sleeves, the red-haired girl could have passed off as normal if it weren't for the two pairs of black, bat-like wings on her back and on the sides of her head. Juri found it strange, but she did not hesitate.

She lurched forward and grabbed the girl's arms from behind, effectively putting her into an armlock.

"Waaa!" the girl cried. Something clattered to the floor; reading glasses, perhaps?

"E-easy now, I'm not gonna kill ya," Juri hissed. She tugged on the girl's arms as she struggled. "Don't gimme a reason to. Just where the hell am I?"

"Somewhere you don't belong."

Juri looked up and over to her left to see the other person she had heard. Dressed in white and purple pajamas covered by purple robes and a mob cap, a girl of sorts glared over at the Korean. Her long purple hair hung just above her purple eyes and fell down her back, even managing to reach her hands that grasped an old and dusty tome. While Juri found her appearance strange enough, what really took the cake was the fact that the girl was not touching the floor. Instead, she levitated a good foot off from the floorboards, her dainty feet dangling beneath her from some mysterious power.

"Come again?" Juri growled as she rotated the red-haired girl around, placing her between herself and the purple creature.

The purple-haired girl started to reply when she suddenly hunched over and coughed into her hand. Despite the red-haired girl's position, she cried out in concern for the other. It was a sickly, wheezing cough, and it continued for a few seconds until she reached into her robes to pull out a small asthma inhaler. After a few breaths, the levitating girl composed herself and returned the inhaler. She sniveled once and looked back to Juri with the same emotionless face, her words monotonous.

"Who sent you? How did you get in here?"

"Nobody sent me! I just got here randomly!" Juri spat. She tightened her grip on the devil. "Look, I'm tired, confused, and pissed off. I just want to know where I am and how I can get out!"

"M-Mistress," the red-haired girl whined from her confinement.

"…Unhand my familiar, human. Perhaps then I will answer your questions."

Juri contemplated letting the servant go before relenting. It didn't bother her that these 'girls' looked the way they did, for she knew that they were not as they seemed. She could take them both if she needed to, even if one of them was levitating. She let go of the familiar and stepped back to allow her to run back over to her mistress. The devil-girl hugged the other right away, to which the purple-haired girl responded with a gentle pat on the head.

"Thank you, Mistress," the devil said as she broke away.

"Well?" Juri scoffed. "I did what you asked, so unless you want these books of yours burned, you'll tell me what I want to know."

Anger flashed in the librarian's eyes for a moment before they returned to their previous uninterested shade.

"Hmph… I wonder who brought you here, but it seems to me that you came here by your own power." The librarian shook her head and coughed again. "From the outside world, I'll wager. You are in Gensokyo, but worse than that, you are in my domain. My library, Voile."

The monotone voice of the librarian couldn't carry malice even if Juri tried to add it herself. She found it amusing that the meek girl was trying to intimidate her, only barely managing to stifle a chuckle. The area around them was massive, filled with all sorts of books and chairs scattered around desks and tables. It really did look like a library, and the levitating girl a librarian, although one Juri had never encountered before.

And Gensokyo? What was that? A town, a country, or another plane of existence?

"Better keep quiet in the library, then. Alright, how do I get outta here?"

"You don't," came a childish voice from above.

Juri looked up and took a step back when she saw two people looking down at her from a balcony. One of them, a red-eyed, blue-haired girl in pink clothes and a mob cap, was leaning on the railing with her chin propped up by her palms. A pair of unfurled black wings jutted out from her back as she gave a fanged grin. At her side was a silver-haired maid, her appearance elegant and composed. She looked down at Juri with disdain, and through the wooden posts of the railing, the Korean could see the faint glint of throwing knives between the maid's fingers.

"What did you just say?" Juri asked, irritated with this sudden appearance.

"My my my, such a rude guest we have here… What hole did you crawl out of, I wonder?"

"None of your business, missy."

"I wonder myself," the librarian interjected. She shot a glare towards the vampire. "It was not the gap-hag's doing. Was it fate?"

"Absolutely not. I wouldn't bother you like this," the vampire replied with a smirk. "You know I pay close attention to the mansion's guests."

A library inhabited by strange girls now began to concern the Korean. She knew she did not belong here, and if she did not take proper action, she would be forcibly removed. The glint from the vampire's fangs and the maid's knives convinced her that getting into a fight would not be the best idea. With the librarian and her servant floating nearby, Juri was even more convinced. These girls looked weak, but there was something powerful about them. It was something that even the rowdy Juri Han was hesitant to fight against.

"I suppose I don't care where you came from anyway," the vampire scoffed as she looked back down at Juri.

"…Ok, does that mean I can go?" Juri asked.

"Go?" The vampire giggled at that. Juri's face fell. "My dear, you've appeared in my mansion without an invitation, you're rude, and you've irritated a dear friend. I can't just let you leave." There was an eerie glint in the vampire's eye as she leaned forward. "You're a human, aren't you? Delightful!"

Juri growled and curled her fingers into fists. Having someone bar her from leaving and look down their nose at her never failed to anger her. She advanced towards the librarian and her servant with the intention of knocking them away to clear a path when two streaks of light slammed into the floorboards in front of her. Darting back, Juri watched as more came down in front of her, only barely missing her feet. The streaks of light were throwing knives, and when Juri looked up to the maid, she discovered dozens of them frozen in midair around her.

She had missed on purpose. At any time, she could set the knives back into motion and riddle the woman below with wounds. Juri reluctantly backed down with a grumble. If the maid enjoyed her power over the Korean, she didn't show it.

"Please remain where you are," she said as she pointed another knife down at her, "lest you hurt yourself."

"What should I do with you?" the vampire pondered. "I'm feeling a bit peckish this morning, so perhaps a nice, long drink will alleviate my hunger. Oh, but then I'd be selfish." Wings flapping, the vampire smirked again. "You could always visit my sister. She's in need of a playmate."

"Do I have a choice?" Juri snapped.

Everyone ignored her as the librarian coughed and voiced her own suggestion.

"…I could use an expendable human for future experiments, but I too would be selfish." The librarian pondered for a moment before looking to her servant. "My familiar experienced the most discomfort here. I believe the choice of selecting a use for this human belongs to the succubus."

The red-haired girl stared at the librarian with adoration before turning to Juri. At first she thought the way the girl looked her over was rather cute, but when she narrowed her eyes and grinned, even Juri was surprised. It was not a malicious grin, not one bit. Even worse than the grin was the meaning behind it. If the girl was as the librarian said, a succubus, then things were suddenly much, much worse than they were a minute ago.

"Mistress, while I would say that I am content with nothing, I find myself wanting this human." The servant blushed and looked to her mistress. "M-my urges…"

"Is that so?" The librarian coughed and sneered. "Then by all means, take as much time as you want."

A mechanical shriek tore their attention away and refocused it on Juri. The maid put her knives back into motion, but they hit nothing but the floorboards. The woman had disappeared, leaving dozens of knives in the place where she stood, a confused a maid, an irritated vampire, and a distraught succubus. The chance for fun and excitement for all had been dashed just as quickly as it had arisen. Coughing again into her hand, the librarian shook her head.

"Hmph… How peculiar…" She shrugged and touched back down the ground to walk off. "Well, Koakuma… I suppose you'll just have to settle for less enticing prey."

The little succubus collapsed to her knees and grumbled into the floorboards.

* * *

Eventually, Juri found herself back at S.I.N. After shaking down the scientists as well as Seth for information, desperately wanting to know if she was in the right universe, she violently ordered the chrome man to remove the teleportation program. The eye had warped her to and fro for nearly an hour, and every location that she went to was just as crazed as the last. Although Juri was resistant to the madness in the world, even she agreed that the places she went to and the things that she had seen there had taken its toll on her.

After the incident with the girls in the mansion, she fought against an armored woman with a lance, then a red-headed and cocky taekwando practitioner. It was a welcome reprieve from the first three warps, but it did not last. Soon after, she found herself within a far-off world where she chased down an Italian coward in green out of anger. Next came a generic warzone filled with soldiers running around like sugar-crazed children before a snowy forest chilled her to the bone. The fire-breathing dragon would have been a welcome addition if it hadn't tried to kill her.

Seth recommended that Juri pursue counseling, and she wholeheartedly agreed once the program was removed and her eye was fixed. Unfortunately for Seth, Juri's idea of counseling was to take out her anger and frustration on the person nearest her.

"Test compatibility next time, jerkass!" she shouted as she left her boss lying on the ground in a broken heap. "That next program had better be bug free, you hear me?"

As she left, Seth couldn't help but reluctantly agree that he deserved his beating.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Games included/alluded to with characters: Team Fortress 2 (Soldier, Heavy, Pyro), Resident Evil 6 (Ada Wong), Touhou Project (Koakuma, Patchouli Knowledge, Remilia Scarlet, Sakuya I.), Soul Calibur 5 (Hilde), Tekken (Hwoarang), Super Mario (Luigi), Every Call of Duty game after 4, Skyrim.

Also, because I grow tired of being attacked by a coward who just so suddenly turns around and attacks Juri after supporting her, I've decided I will update my fanfictions on deviantART. I'm more active there, and it's not hard to find me. Just search up "MajorMario" in the search.


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